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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 



BY PAUL EVE STEVENSON 

¥ 
A DEEP-WATER VOYAGE 

i2mo. Buckram, ornamental, j!i.2S 

BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

FOUR MONTHS IN A YANKEE CLIPPER 

Illustrated from photographs taken by 
the author. i2mo. Buckram, orna- 
mental, $1.75 

The Dee^-lVaier Library. The abate 
two volumes in a box, $^.oo 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

FOUR MONTHS IN A 

YANKEE CLIPPER 



BY /-' 

PAUL EVE STEVENSON 

AUTHOR OF "a DEEP-WATER VOYAGe" 



ILLUSTRATED FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY THE AUTHOR 




PHILADELPHIA 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
1899 



^ r ^ 



i ' 



8970 



Copyright, 1898 

BY 

J. B. LippiNcoTT Company 



^WO COPIES R£C£IVEO. 







TO 

MY MOTHER 



PREFACE 

As in the case of our first " Deep-Water Voyage" to 
Calcutta, the present one was undertaken with the sole idea 
of enjoyment. The pleasure which such a voyage affords 
the fortunate few in whom there is a real affection for the 
sea is quite indescribable. To such there is no monotony, 
for there is always something interesting and amusing going 
on aboard ship, if one's eyes are open ; the men themselves 
present an inexhaustible field for study and reflection, and 
it is well known that a more jovial and witty fraternity 
does not exist. 

But there is also a sombre, tragic side to a voyage in a 
Yankee deep-water ship, and that is the cruel and brutal 
treatment accorded that most popular individual just now, 
— the American sailor ; by which is meant the men who sail 
before the mast under our flag. The merchant service has 
ever been regarded as the navy's nursery, and a faithful 
account by an impartial observer will be found in these 
pages, showing the manner in which our seamen are treated, 
— the brothers, as it were, of those who won our victories 
at Manila and Santiago. 

P. E. S. 

New York, October lo, 1898. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Cape Horn bearing northwest, distant fifteen miles . Frontispiece 

PAGE 

The course of the " Hosea Higgins" 13 

The companion-way 18 

Plan of cabin 28 

Forty to the minute 48 

Mending sails in fine weather 53 

Overhauling the "Venturer" 84 

" Blow, my bully boys, blow" 104 

" Eight bells" 127 

A fifty-foot Cape Horn gray-beard 212 

The ablest seaman in the ship 303 

The four-masted British ship " Loch Torridon" 333 

Tarring down 358 

Hauling taut the braces 387 



60 Greenwich 




l°f Longitude 80 West from " '""fff Greenwich 40 



The course of the " Hosea Higjliiis" 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

It would have been reasonable to suppose that, having 
made one long voyage in a sailing ship, my wife and I 
would have been content to stop ashore for the rest of our 
lives, or at least to limit the length of our voyages to the 
distance which separates the United States and Europe. 
For a while, indeed, after our return to America from 
India, we were contented enough on land, and were kept 
busy answering the innumerable questions of interested 
relatives and friends concerning the voyage just ended. 
But restlessness presently attacked us again ; and it was 
not hard to perceive by the avidity with which my wife 
searched the Herald' s ship-news columns every morning 
for tidings of deep-water vessels that no persuasion on my 
part would be necessary in the event of our undertaking 
another voyage. Therefore, when two years had passed 
away, we began to discuss the advisability of once more 
tempting the elements in another sea-journey to far-distant 
lands. Japan loomed up before us in a particularly rosy 
light as a destination for this voyage ; but there was one 
great objection to it : a voyage to Yokohama would have 
taken us around the Cape of Good Hope a second time, 
and it was our cherished desire to double Cape Horn, and 
thus overcome the two most celebrated and tempestuous 
promontories on the globe. Indeed, as far back as I can 
remember, I have always wanted to accomplish the westerly 
passage around the southernmost extremity of the earth's 
continents. The very name of Cape Horn is enough to 
fire the imagination of a true lover of the sea, and fills the 

«3 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

mind with pictures of ships battling with gales of wind and 
giant seas and visions of bleak, iron-bound shores wrapped 
in the gloom which enshrouds that desolate region. After 
much discussion, then, we decided on the voyage from New 
York to San Francisco. It was January when we first 
broached the matter, and, after arguing the pros and cons 
of the subject, concluded to try and get away in May, as 
that would take us to the Horn in July, the middle of the 
antarctic winter. At this our friends stood aghast. " It is 
quite bad enough, ' ' they said, ' ' to tempt Providence at all 
on so foolhardy an excursion, but to double Cape Horn in 
midwinter is going beyond the limits of reason. ' ' But we 
stood our ground in spite of the hurricane of objections 
(and it required some moral courage to do it), and forth- 
with commenced systematic preparations for the journey. 
We were making the voyage to a great extent for the pur- 
pose of experiencing the weather and seas off Cape Horn, 
and as the latter would, no doubt, be larger and grander 
in winter than in summer, I don't think that our idea was 
so very preposterous after all. 

Naturally, our first thought was of the vessel in which 
we were to sail, and we looked forward with much interest 
to a voyage in an American ship, having all our lives heard 
that our ships were run in a splendid manner, that the dis- 
cipline on board was perfect, etc. ; and it would also be 
interesting to compare this vessel with those of another 
nation, as our first voyage was made in the British ship 
"Mandalore." Now, it happened that all of our largest 
deep-watermen were away from New York, and we were at 
a loss what to do, for, as a general rule, the larger the 
vessel the more comfortable she is in bad weather. There 
are many who will, no doubt, take exception to this, as 
being by no means true ; yet it would be absurd to argue 
that the ' ' Germanic, ' ' for instance, is as easy in heavy 

H 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

weather as the ' ' Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, " or a twelve- 
hundred-ton sailing ship as the " Potosi." At length, one 
morning appeared the announcement in the marine news 
that the ship " Hosea Higgins," Abner Scruggs, master, 
had arrived from San Francisco. She was not as large as 
the * ' Roanoke' ' by a thousand tons or more ; but she was 
well known to us by name, and we went over to Brooklyn 
one day, where she was discharging a cargo of wine, canned 
salmon, and whale-oil, and introduced ourselves to the cap- 
tain. Although gruff in the extreme at first, he subse- 
quently thawed out sufficiently to warrant the belief that he 
was really quite an amiable individual, and we parted with 
his assurance that if the owners were willing he would take 
us around to San Francisco, and even went to the length 
of offering us his own room, which was very large and well 
ventilated. The owners raised no objections to our going, 
so we paid the passage-money of six hundred dollars and 
took possession of the captain's room. I might remark 
parenthetically that this seemed to be a pretty good round 
sum to pay as passage- money, in view of the fact that we 
paid only three hundred dollars to Calcutta on the first 
voyage ; however, in the latter case the money went to the 
captain, while in the present instance it went to the owners ; 
besides, this passage would probably be somewhat longer. 
The captain received no recompense whatever, unless we 
should choose to make him a present. 

The ship was advertised to sail on May i, but there was 
the usual delay incident to the departure of a sailing ship 
taking out a general cargo, and it was nearly a fortnight 
after that date before we finally departed. 

Under any conditions it is interesting to watch the load- 
ing of a large sailing ship, and when you are going to sea 
in that ship, a certain degree of interest seems to attach 
itself to each article, and the assortment of freight was be- 

15 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

wildering. In a couple of hours, one morning when I was 
on board, there came down in rapid succession two large 
boilers for Spreckles's sugar refinery in Honolulu, several 
hundred cases of starch, ditto kegs of nails, two wagon- 
loads of sewing-machines, two hundred bales of oakum, 
and four very large whale-boats, about thirty-five feet long, 
going out to Sitka. Strange that they can not or do not 
build good whale-boats on the Pacific coast ; the best boats 
used by our whalers are all built in New Bedford, even 
down to the present time, and sent out to Alaska round 
the Horn. 

It will be easily perceived how difficult it must be to 
stow a cargo of this sort so that in the heaviest of weather 
it will not shift. Imagine packing away four clumsy boats 
in a ship's hold so that they will not be crushed by heavier 
objects, and yet in such a way as to prevent these very 
objects from shifting. If the various articles could be de- 
livered on the pier to suit the stevedores, it would be plain 
sailing ; but everything must be taken as it comes, and it 
calls for the greatest skill from the most experienced men. 
There is said to be only a single firm of this sort in New 
York whose men understand perfectly the art of stowing 
the cargo of a deep-water ship. ■* 

For several days we were tortured on the rack of expec- 
tation ; but after the most aggravating delays and daily 
messages from the owners that the ship ' ' would positively 
go to sea to-morrow," we learned one Monday morning 
that the ship would be cleared that day and would sail the 
next morning, which was 

May II 

Oh, the riot attendant upon the departure of a ship on a 
long voyage ! The distraction and tumult are at some 
moments terrific, in spite of everything that has been 

l6 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

written about a vessel's being in perfect order to a sailor's 
eye when leaving port. We have been on two large ships 
now when getting under way, and all I have to say on the 
subject is, that it is wonderful how much disturbance and 
disorder can be gathered into so small a space as a ship's 
deck. We were told to be on board by nine o'clock, as 
the tide would serve soon afterward, and we would haul out 
about ten. At the stipulated hour, then, we went over the 
side and found that the crew had just come down. They 
were collected together in the waist, and in the centre of 
the group stood a hard-looking individual whom I took for 
the shipping-master. He was haranguing the men, who 
seemed to listen intently, though I couldn't hear what was 
said ; and when I strolled to the break of the poop to be 
nearer to him, he gruffly commanded me to " go 'way from 
there, will you." Why he did so it is impossible to say, 
unless he was engaged in some unlawful transaction. This 
was, no doubt, the reason, as there is no attempt made by 
the United States authorities to enforce the laws relating to 
the shipping of seamen. By and by this creature took his 
disagreeable countenance over the side, and immediately 
those who were not too drunk were turned to at various 
odd jobs about the decks. Some of the men, however, 
were too far gone to even stand upright alone, so the two 
mates seized half a dozen of them and drove them forward 
and into the forecastle, the door of which was then locked, 
and the men were left to themselves to sleep off some of 
the effects of South Street grog. Those who come aboard 
in this condition generally have a bottle or two each of rum 
concealed about them, and after a vigorous search the mate 
found himself possessed of several quarts of very bad grog, 
which he hove into the river. 

Several of our relatives and friends had come down to 
see us off, and, seated aft by the wheel-house, they seemed 

17 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

to take deep interest in the rakish fellows who were to be 
our companions, as it were, for four or five months. On the 
whole, they were a very decent-looking crowd ; but when 
the second mate sung out, ' ' Come up here a couple of you, 
and give us a hand with this tow line," and all hands came 
stumbling up the poop ladders and lumbered aft with that 
fixed, iodiotic stare of half-intoxicated men trying to show 
how very sober they are, we observed that our relatives 
shuddered as they thought of our being imprisoned for 
maybe half a year with this company of ruffians, as they, 
no doubt, supposed the men to be. 

A remarkable feature of the departure of our ship was 
the crowd that had gathered to see us off. A body of men 
and boys to the number of at least two hundred were 
ranged along the pier, minutely criticising the ship and the 
way in which she was sparred, as well as the probable 
length of voyage. " It'll be Cape Horn in July," said one, 
"and she'll never do it in less than a hundred and fifty." 
" Guess you don't know the old man, or you wouldn't say 
that, ' ' said his neighbor. ' ' If Scruggs don' t take her out 
under a hundred and twenty, I'm a farmer." Here a 
movement was perceptible among the crowd ; somebody 
seemed to be elbowing his way through the midst, and in 
another moment we recognized the fierce whiskers of Abner 
Scruggs himself. With him was one of the agents, and 
they both seemed angry about something ; but the captain 
greeted us very amiably, imparting to us at the same time 
the unwelcome news that he must now clear the ship of all 
who were not going along. Sad farewells were said, rela- 
tives and friends were handed over the gangway, which 
was instantly drawn on board, the powerful tow-boat ' ' C. 
E. Evarts' ' started ahead, and we began to move slowly out, 
stern first, into the rapid current of the East River. So 
imperceptibly did we gather way that it was a minute or 

i8 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

so before any one on the pier saw that we had started ; 
some one in the crowd suddenly perceived it and shouted 
"she's off ;" and as our long, slender jib-boom glided out 
past the string-piece, we were saluted with a series of hearty 
cheers, which lasted until the tugs (for another joined us) 
had slued the ship around and headed her for Governor's 
Island. On the way down the river we passed two splendid 
iron sailing vessels, — the German ship ' ' H. Bischoff, ' ' which 
had just arrived after an extraordinarily long passage of two 
hundred and eighteen days from Hong Kong ; and the 
British ship " Walter H. Wilson," being one of only a few 
English vessels named after individuals. 

The second tow-boat left us at Governor's Island, and 
afterward it was extremely slow work, as the speed at no 
time was greater than four knots an hour. Off Tompkins- 
ville we passed the battle-ship " Indiana" and the cruiser 
" New York," each of which we saluted with three dips of 
the ensign, which were returned in kind. We could see 
the sailors on the men-of-war gather in crowds to watch us 
drag slowly by, for it is not so very frequently nowadays 
that a large ship flying the stars and stripes is seen on her 
way to sea. 

In the lower bay we found a very light southerly wind 
blowing, and a German iron bark with painted ports that had 
passed us outward bound, returned and anchored in the 
Horseshoe, not caring to continue under conditions some- 
what unfavorable. However, we kept on, and commenced 
to make sail off the point of the Hook ; and I must here 
assert that I never saw such confusion as reigned during 
this operation. The disorder when hauling into the stream 
was bad enough, but when the command was given to cast 
off the gaskets the ship was in a perfect whirl till the mizzen 
sky-sail had been swayed aloft, and as it takes several hours 
to make sail when first leaving port, the mates were almost 

19 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

out of their minds when the job had been finished. All 
hands began with the customary blackguarding of the men 
who had bent the sails, and the second mate passed the 
afternoon taking his oath that he ' ' never did see quite the 
like of the mess them riggers had made aloft," while the 
men were jumping about the decks like headless chickens, 
trying to find where the various ropes led to, for no two 
ships are rigged alike. It may be imagined how confusing 
it is for a man to come aboard of a ship and find that some 
of the sheets and clew-lines are not belayed in the same 
place as in the vessel that he left only a week ago. Indeed 
an intelligent second mate will often be two or three days 
getting the ' ' hang' ' of a sailing vessel. 

Before dark, though, everything had been straightened 
out, and the ropes coiled away over the pins, and the decks 
at length began to assume that well-ordered appearance so 
attractive in a large square- rigger. 

The men are a far better lot than we expected to find in 
a Cape-Horner, and most of them are on the sunny side of 
thirty-five, though there are two or three old hulks among 
them. About three o'clock the drunken sailors were 
hauled out of the forecastle, and they were a sight as they 
yawed around, falling over ropes and capstan-bars. As 
the foretop-gallant-sail was being sheeted home, the captain 
went down on the main deck to have a look about the ship, 
when to our intense astonishment a young tow-headed 
sailor, the drunkest of the lot, lurched up to him, and, 
leaning against the skipper's shoulder, poured some tale of 
woe into his ear. Now, Captain Scruggs doesn' t look like 
a particularly mild-tempered person, and when the man 
held out a ponderous fist to shake hands with him, we 
didn't know what was going to happen. But the captain 
gravely gave him his hand and nodded his head, while the 
man lurched forward to his companions. At six o'clock 

20 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Captain Scruggs said, ' ' I don' t believe in giving grog to 
sailors at any time, but some of the men are feeling pretty 
well used up from the hard work after a long drunk ashore, 
so I'm going to give 'em a bracer. ' ' Forthwith a bucketful 
of diluted Jamaica rum was served out at the cabin door, 
each man as his pannikin was filled nodding his thanks to 
the steward. One of them, however, a very sinister-look- 
ing man, tried to snatch the bucket away from the little 
steward ; but the skipper caught him at the moment, and 
then for the first time we heard Captain Scruggs' s deep-sea 
voice. The man was so scared by the hurricane of words 
hurled at him that he dropped the bucket, which luckily 
didn't capsize, and, pulling his front hair to the skipper, 
insisted that it wasn' t he " who was doin' the funny busi- 
ness." 

Our first night on board began silently and peacefully, 
and we turned in early after the turmoil of the day. 

May 12 

"The ship was cheered, the harbor cleared, 
Merrily did we drop. 
Below the kirk, below the hill, below the 
Light-house top." 

When we reached the deck this morning, the lofty Nave- 
sink highlands had vanished beyond the horizon and we 
floated alone upon the ocean. The day came on with a 
fresh southerly wind and a lively sea. My wife went to 
bed last night sea-sick, and this morning she was very ill 
and wholly given over to dismal reflections. The motion 
was quite severe, and I myself felt far happier on deck than 
below. Indeed, it generally takes me three or four days 
to grow fully accustomed to being at sea. The captain 
evidently saw that I wasn't feeling particularly robust, so 
he instilled life into me by asking whether I wouldn't 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

like to keep the meteorological record during the voyage, 
the ship being provided with blanks for the purpose 
by the Hydrographic Office at Washington. This will 
be very interesting work for me, and I feel quite im- 
portant. 

If a man commenced guessing what we in the cabin had 
for breakfast to-day, he might keep on indefinitely without 
hitting the mark, for we had broiled sweet- breads ! Pon- 
der on this, ye landsmen ; a week hence, though, will see 
the end of our ice and therefore of the fresh meat. To 
our surprise, one hundred pounds of prime beef, mutton, 
and chickens for broiling came down about an hour before 
we sailed, beautifully packed in a cask in alternate layers 
of meat and ice, and now repose under the forecastle head 
in a cool place. No doubt, by exercising a little care, 
much, for us aft, may be accomplished in the way of pro- 
longing our Lucullian banquets. Imagine a fresh, juicy 
roast of beef off Cape Horn ! 

Before proceeding with the history of our voyage, there 
may be some readers who would like to know what sort of 
a ship this is in which we are journeying, and the following 
is a description of the vessel. 

The " Hosea Higgins" is a powerful wooden ship, a 
fraction over two thousand tons net, with a length over all 
of two hundred and sixty feet, a beam of forty-four feet, 
and a draught of twenty-five ; she was built at Waldoboro, 
Maine, in 1885, and is of course classed A i. She is a 
three-master, very loftily rigged, as nearly all Yankee ships 
are, crossing three sky-sail-yards, and her mainyard is 
ninety-five feet long. There is but one house on the main- 
deck, but it is a very large one and contains the forecastle, 
sail-room, galley, and carpenter-shop, in which there is a 
twenty horse-power donkey engine. So many persons 
have asked us at various times about the cabins of sailing 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

ships, that we have made a plan of the saloon and state- 
rooms, which appears on the opposite page. 

So much for the ship ; now for the monarch who com- 
mands her. Abner Scruggs is one of a very large family 
of sea-faring men, and hails from Rockland, Maine ; in 
stature he is not exalted, but is very massive, and before he 
grew stout was no doubt a powerful man, his age being 
about fifty years. He is fierce of aspect, with bristling 
whiskers and dark eyes that snap like electric sparks when 
angry ; and I have never known a man who could utter 
his commands in so determined, severe, and brittle a 
voice. 

The mate's name is Leander Goggins. By the way, on 
a sailing ship the man who holds that position is never 
called the chief mate, first officer, or anything except 
simply "the mate," even if there are four of them. Mr. 
Goggins was born in Chichester, England, about fifty years 
ago, but left that country when a lad and became a citizen 
of the United States, an unusual performance for an Eng- 
lishman, who seldom renounces his native land. He is 
short and small generally, talks with a terrific cockney 
accent, in spite of his thirty-five years in and about America, 
and possesses one of those countenances which you can't 
tell anything about ; but his looks are not in his favor. 
One of his most objectionable points is his fawning servility, 
which is never prominent in a man who amounts to much, 
however humble his station. 

The second mate, Thomas Rarx, is a Nova Scotian, and 
is a large, raw-boned, hearty man with a fresh complexion, 
and is therefore the mate's antithesis. You would never 
suppose that he was addicted to the thumping of sailors, 
yet this is one of the most important duties of the second 
mate of an American ship ; on some of our sailing vessels 
it seems to be the most important. Then there are two 

23 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

bosuns ; one of them, a Brooklyn youth, is a weak-looking 
creature, and has more the appearance of an American 
District Messenger boy than that of bosun of a Cape- 
Homer ; perhaps his name has crushed his spirit, — it is 
Jimmie Rumps. But the other bosun is a brawny Scot, 
David MacFoy, of Troon ; he is a splendid man, beauti- 
fully built, tall, straight, very good-looking, and is some- 
what conceited, handles the men well, and has a cyclonic 
voice. 

The cook and steward are both natives of the East. 
The latter is from Singapore, and is therefore a true Malay ; 
blandness seems to be his chief attribute, and his bashful- 
ness allows him to do nothing but smile and back out of 
sight. What there is of the cook seems to be unex- 
ceptionable ; he is a Cantonite, about four feet and a half 
high, weighs possibly ninety pounds, and is a tip-top sea- 
cook. 

• Next comes the carpenter, whose only name aboard ship 
is "Chips." Instead of a neat, clean person, redolent of 
pine shavings and saw-dust, our carpenter is a very dirty, 
fat individual, who appears to have been steeped for an 
indefinite period in a solution of kerosene and lamp-black. 
Most Finns (why Russian Finn ? The man who says that 
will say hop-toad) seem to be dirty, however, so that he is 
no exception ; in weight he would go well over two hun- 
dred and thirty pounds, and, as a whole, is the most objec- 
tionable-looking person whom I have ever seen. You 
could never call him Chips. As for Sammie, the boy, he 
is a short, thick, young Jew, not prepossessing in appear- 
ance, and with an apparently wonderful capacity for doing 
nothing ; like Peter Simple, he looks as though he could 
stand a great deal of sleep. We have seen so little of the 
sailors as yet that, of course, no notion of any of them can 
be formed. 

24 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

We did fairly well as to distance sailed in the twenty-four 
hours, and at noon we were one hundred and seventy-five 
miles from Sandy Hook. 

May 13 

This was a glorious morning, with a fresh breeze from 
the southward. Last night the wind came whistling along 
in strong pufTs, and we had to stow both sky-sails and 
royals for it ; and when I went on deck at 7.30, quite a 
hummocky sea was running from the southwest. My wife 
was exceedingly sea-sick all night long, and clung tena- 
ciously to the theory that she would perish within twenty- 
four hours. At about ten this morning, though, both wind 
and sea having gone down somewhat, my wife consented 
to go on deck, so we arranged chairs on the cabin-house, 
and she stayed there all day, improving every minute. 
By supper-time she had a hearty longing for food, and we 
have no more misgivings as to sea-sickness for the rest of 
the voyage. 

I rather like the way in which the second mate goes to 
work ; he appears to be a very fine seaman, and this is 
perhaps the most desirable and necessary of all the acquire- 
ments of a second mate. He has also considerable quiet 
humor ; yesterday afternoon he caught sight of one of the 
men who had not yet recovered the full use of his faculties, 
fussing about on the mainyard ; and after watching him 
for a few moments he sung out, ' ' Mainyard there, what 
the h are you gapin' at ! Cast off that yard-arm gas- 
ket ; d'ye think yer messperized ?" After which, he rolled 
forward, and we could see him chuckling and shaking at his 
own conceit. 

Our fresh breeze wafted us across two hundred and 
twenty miles of the North Atlantic yesterday, and at noon 
we were in latitude 39° 22' north ; longitude, 65° 8' west. 

25 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

May 14 

Another fine day with the same fresh breeze from the 
southward, and the captain is busy shaking hands with 
himself on his good offing ; remembering the German who 
turned back and anchored in the Horseshoe, he mutters 
from time to time, ' ' Oh, 1 wish I was under Sandy Hook, 
I don' t think. ' ' We couldn' t carry the sky-sails last night, 
but they were set this forenoon, and we are now doing fully 
ten knots. My wife has entirely recovered, and is amusing 
herself with the three cats on board. One of them is a 
splendid animal, a pure Maltese, whose companion is a so- 
called coon cat ; both of them belong to the captain. The 
third beast is the mate's, an unfortunate, weird, black- 
and-white alley-cat, tall and lank, and as hideous as a night- 
mare. 

It is remarkable how good the eating is on board ; for 
although on many ships the meat, flour, etc., are often 
the best that can be bought, everything is frequently spoiled 
by villianous cookery ; even our coffee is as good as people 
generally have ashore. Captain Scruggs told us before we 
sailed that he was a dyspeptic, and said that he had to be 
very particular about what he ate. On this we somewhat 
callously congratulated ourselves ; and, sure enough, the 
skipper's stomachic infirmities have insured us none but the 
best of everything. It might be here remarked that we 
brought absolutely nothing with us in the way of pro- 
visions. It is customary for captains to ascertain what 
their prospective passengers' preferences are before storing 
the ship ; and, as I knew the company who had the vitual- 
ling of the ship, it was certain that nothing better could be 
bought. Indeed, the average ship in these days carries such 
an abundance and variety of wholesome food, that unless one 
cared to take along such absurd edibles as pates and the 
like, the food question can very well take care of itself. 

26 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

The mate, Iveander Goggins, entertained us at breakfast 
this morning with some more or less remarkable conversa- 
tion. It really seems impossible that a man can hate his 
native country as he does ; and he gave an affirmative reply 
to Scott's famous question, — 

" Breathes there the man with soul so dead 
Who never to himself hath said, 

'This is my own, my native land?' " 

The skipper jollies him up constantly about his still 
being an Englishman in spite of his citizen's papers, and 
this morning the mate couldn't withstand it any longer, 
and delivered himself as follows, with great intensity : 
"Cap'n Scruggs, sir, I thank God I left Hengland w'en I 
were eleven year hold, sir. I tell you, cap'n, and you too, 
sir, it ain't no fit country for a man to call himself a native 
of. A pore man carn't take off 'is 'at to a lord, sir ; ho, 
no ; 'e's got to bow and sheer and pull 'is front 'air ; and 
if hit's a lady, why 'e mustn't look at all." This was 
enough to disgust any one with him ; and he made so 
strange an appearance with his weather-stained face, bleary 
little eyes, and heavily veined temples, that I almost shouted 
when he finished. A great slashing scar on his chin, when 
his stubby beard permits it to be seen, doesn't add much 
to his personal charms. Later on he began to talk about 
Captain Bob Waterman, perhaps the most unpleasantly 
notorious ship-master in the old New York- California trade. 
The mate averred that he had sailed with "Cap'n Bob," 
and he added that the yarn about Cap'n Bob's having cast 
off the lee main-brace in a Cape Horn squall one night, 
jerking half a dozen men into the sea just because he didn't 
like them, he had always considered as probable. '"E 
shot 'is own child, you know," pleasantly added Mr. Gog- 
gins, as though he were mentioning the killing of a chicken. 

27 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

At noon we were six hundred and fifty miles from Sandy 
Hook, in latitude 38° 58' north ; longitude, 60° 14' west. 

May 15 

Glorious weather, with southwest winds as fresh as ever ; 
it is growing much warmer, and the temperature of the water 
has risen to 71°, making it possible to bathe in it without 
much gasping. 

Shortly after breakfast the captain asked us if we wouldn't 
like to go forward and see him catch a bonito, as there were 
several playing about the forefoot. ■ So we went up on the 
forecastle head, sat down on the gammoning-iron, and 
watched the skipper creep out on the bowsprit with a cod- 
line and a hook baited with a bit of rag in his hand. 
Then he went through various manoeuvres necessary in 
the capture of these deep-sea fish, and incidentally nearly 
manoeuvred himself ofi the jib-boom. The scheme con- 
sisted in dropping the rag swiftly down till it touched the 
water, and instantly jerking it upward again, to excite the 
imagination of the fish, I suppose. They looked very fine 
darting about at great speed several feet beneath the sur- 
face, being of a brilliant hue, and at first we thought that 
they were young dolphins, — that is, the dolphin of sailors. 
At length, after innumerable vain efforts, accompanied 
with much hard breathing and damning of the fish's eyes, 
the captain hooked one and hauled him up, snapping and 
fighting till he was dropped into a gunny sack held by one 
of the men. He looked like a plump mackerel, weighed 
six pounds, and will afford a little variety to our evening 
repast. 

This afternoon the skipper said that I ought to have a 
pair of sea-slippers ; so he vanished into the slop-chest (the 
technical name for the apartment where all sorts of wearing 
apparel for the crew is kept) and emerged with the most 

28 









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I 
















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Cr 




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B 


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4 


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K 



K 



PLAN OF CABIN 

I, captain's room (ours); 2, spare room; 3, office; 
4, steward; 5, pantry; 6, second mate; 7, bath-room; 
8, spare room (captain's) ; 9, chart-room ; 10, store- 
room ; II, carpenter; 12, mate. A, harmonium; B, 
table; C, chairs; D, sofa; E, exits; F, companion- 
way to poop; G, mizzen-mast ; H, dining-table ; I, 
stove; J, vestibules; K, exits on main-deck. 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

uncomfortable looking foot-gear that I ever beheld. The 
slippers (?) were made of immensely thick red grain- 
leather, with heavy, pegged soles, as inflexible as plate 
armor and as easy-looking as Belgian sabots. The captain 
said that they were as tight as sea-boots, if I kept the 
water from flowing over the tops, adding, " I'll tell you 
what I do : in cold, wet weather I just haul a pair of heavy 
socks right over the outside of the slippers and make boots 
of 'em." 

At a quarter to five this afternoon we sighted a steamer 
on the lee bow, and as there was a chance of signalling her, 
and she was bound to the westward, we put our helm up a 
little and kept away a couple of points. At 5.30 she was 
abreast of us, and we hoisted our number and ' ' report me 
all well," to which she hoisted her answering pennant. 
She was a very large English cargo-boat, one of that new 
style of tramp freighters with one funnel, two pole-masts, 
and a great sheer. She seemed to be making more than 
ten knots (though the snow-drift under her bows indicated 
about twenty-five), and should therefore reach New York 
in time to be reported in next Wednesday's papers. Lati- 
tude at noon, 38° 31' north ; longitude, 55° 2' west. 

May 16 

Our first Sabbath at sea broke calm and warm. When 
we went on deck at seven bells not a breath of air was 
stirring, the ship had no steerage-way, and an oily calm lay 
upon the face of the deep, recalling memories of our pre- 
vious voyage, when, in this very part of the ocean in the 
month of July, we averaged twenty miles a day for twenty- 
one days. Four hundred and twenty miles in three weeks 
wouldn't burn a ship's copper off ; it is about three-quarters 
of one day's run of the fastest express steamers. 

It was truly hot this afternoon, for the calm prevailed all 

29 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

day ; but fortunately there was quite a swell present, in 
which we rolled about, creating pleasant draughts from the 
slatting sails. How orderly and quiet a ship is on a Sunday 
afternoon when the weather is mild and clear ! Every 
rope, every implement, is in its place, the decks have been 
washed as clean as hard scrubbing can make them, and the 
brass mountings shine like mirrors. Coiled away in shady 
nooks lie the watch, each with a book or paper in his hand, 
deep buried in its contents. Some recline in the water- 
ways under shadow of the bulwarks, others in the shade of 
the deck-house ; some on the forecastle-head, where cool 
airs circulate from the swinging of the big foresail and jibs. 
The only audible sounds are the flapping of the sails, the 
somnolent cheeping of the blocks, and the working of the 
rudder-head as the ship rolls about in the swell, with per- 
haps the low tones of a man's voice humming an air to 
himself on the main-hatch. A more peaceful scene it 
would be impossible to find than that presented by a large 
ship thus becalmed, — more tranquil and solemn than the 
little country hamlet dozing in the drowsiness of a mid- 
summer^ Sabbath afternoon. 

Let a breeze come along, though, from an unexpected 
quarter, and in an instant everything starts into life. 
' ' Square the crojjick-yard !' ' comes with startling sudden- 
ness from the officer of the watch. In a moment the half- 
hidden forms of the men spring with a bound from their 
cool retreats, and the forward part of the ship resounds 
with their deep voices as they come rolling aft, each repeat- 
ing the order, "Square the crojjick-yard, sir." Aft they 
come in a shuffling trot, — not slovenly, but in a cheerful 
way, — and the ponderous yards creak slowly round to the 
hoarse tones of the bosun. 

It is during such scenes as this that the magic of the sea 
takes hold of the imaginative mind. The remembrance of 

30 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

gales of wind, and of hail and sleet and snow fade utterly 
from the memory, and the mind is conscious only of the 
inexpressible charm which the mighty deep exerts over 
those who truly love the sea and go down to it in ships. 

After breakfast this morning the mate told me how 
oranges are loaded at Tahiti, by hauling the vessels up 
under the trees which overhang the water and shaking the 
fruit into the hold. Already Mr. Goggins is beginning to 
growl at the weather. What he wants all the time is ' ' just 
enough to show the sky-sails to, sir." We had a little 
more wind after breakfast, it is true, but it came from the 
southeast and let go at ten. Last night, just before we 
turned in, some Mother Gary's chickens which were flying 
around the ship began to utter their quaint, plaintive cries, 
at which Gaptain Scruggs and the mate shuddered and 
looked grave. I asked Mr. Goggins what was wrong, and 
he replied, " Whenever the blarsted birds cry, there's sure 
to be a long spell o' light weather." 

It is strange what disdain merchant skippers have for 
yachting, nor can they ever understand why a man should 
expend so much on a vessel without trying to derive some 
income from the same. I happened to mention to the 
skipper last evening that I once chartered a pine-apple 
schooner at Nassau and took a party of friends on a cruise 
through the Bahamas. "After shells, I suppose," quoth 
the worthy man, thinking that my scheme was to load up 
with the beautiful shells found in those islands and take 
them across to the mainland and sell them. Again I told 
him that my most cherished scheme was to navigate the 
South Seas in an auxiliary yacht. "Yes," he answered, 
" it' s a good notion ; trading ain' t dead there yet. ' ' Per- 
haps the most amusing incident of this sort happened once 
when I was on board a yacht lying at Vineyard Haven. 
A large three-masted schooner came in, having lost her 

31 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

mizzentop-mast. The owner of the yacht pulled aboard 
of the schooner and looked her over, and then asked her 
captain and mate back to the yacht. Of course they ad- 
mired her exceedingly, and as she was quite a large boat, 
they observed that it must cost a sight to run her. Finally, 
when they were about to return to their own vessel, the 
skipper asked, gravely and in perfect good faith, ' ' What I 
don't understand is, how do you make her pay ?" Lati- 
tude, 37° 50' north ; longitude, 53° 40' west. 

May 17 

Perhaps we may change our opinion before the voyage 
is over. Perhaps we may not. I have seen enough of the 
skipper to know that this voyage is not going to be ex- 
quisitely pleasant for ourselves, the mates, or the men. A 
little disturbance started this forenoon in the following 
manner : A barrel of carrots, onions, and parsnips had 
been rolled under the forecastle-head by the mate, who 
then forgot all about it ; so that, instead of giving it to the 
cook, he allowed the green stuff to wilt and wither in the 
heat of the past forty-eight hours. The captain heard of 
this for the first time to-day, and ever since not a single 
thing has gone right for him. We first noticed that some- 
thing was amiss with the skipper by the tone he used to the 
helmsman at eleven o' clock, when he told him to ' ' hold her 
up a little more. ' ' The man obeyed instantly, but made 
an inexcusable mistake : he forgot to answer, and in this he 
was, of course, wrong, for he should have either repeated 
the order or said, ' ' Ay, ay, sir. ' ' The captain then told 
him in forcible language what would happen to men who 
failed to answer. We thought that the matter was settled, 
when the mate came aft from the break of the poop on a 
run, thrust his fist through the wheel-house window in the 
man' s face and snarled, ' ' Now, luk ud ' ere, ain' t I told yer 

32 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

to answer w'en yer spoken to, eh? Well, you just do it, 
or /'// teach yer to open yer mouth ; I'll fix yer." 
Innocent words, comparatively speaking, but no one can 
imagine the intensity of emphasis on the ' ' fix, ' ' or the 
malignant, hazing tone which the mate threw into his 
threat. The skipper had just "jumped on" the mate, 
and, of course, the latter must find some one to retaliate 
on, and here was an opportunity. The boy Sammie, too, 
came in for his share of attention, but it must be said that 
this slothful youth deserved it ; and, finally, the skipper and 
mate came to words at dinner about a barrel of hard bread. 
Captain Scruggs graduated years ago with high honors in 
the art of nagging, and at last he provoked Mr. Goggins 
beyond endurance. " Goddlemighty, Cap'n Scruggs, if I 
ain't seen no ship-bread, 'ow could I break it out?" We 
expected an explosion from the old man, but he only 
tugged fiercely at his whiskers and shut the mate up with, 
"All right, sir; all right. We won't continue the argu- 
ment. ' ' As the day wore on his temper grew worse and 
worse ; and when I called his attention to a school of fish 
playing alongside, supposing that he would like to see 
them, he answered tartly, "Very well, sir; you'd better 
jump overboard and catch 'em." I thought it best not to 
reply ; but it was very annoying, for some of the men hard 
by smiled broadly. 

It must be acknowledged that the thought of being 
obliged to sit opposite to this man at table three times a 
day for at least four months is a disagreeable one, and 
this is not a cheerful meditation at the very beginning of 
a voyage. Yet, the captain has proved that in some 
ways he is very kind and considerate ; but he has that 
hard, flinty voice and overbearing manner, an instance of 
which the reader can doubtless recall among his seafaring 
friends. 

3 33 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Throughout nearly the entire day we had an almost per- 
fect calm ; this, of course, aggravated the old man's tem- 
per, for he seems to be a most intolerant individual. So 
little headway did we make that at noon we were in latitude 
37° 22' north ; longitude, 52° 39' west. 

MAy 18 

We had another sample of American ship ' ' discipline' ' 
this morning. We went on deck at 7.30 to eat some 
fruit before breakfast, and as soon as the skipper hove in 
sight it was plain that he was looking for trouble. Presently 
the mate appeared, and it was evident from his countenance 
that he had found the trouble the captain was looking for. 
In a little while two of the men came aft, each with a case 
of oil in his arms, which they deposited on deck by the 
wheel-house, preparatory to passing them down into the 
lazarette. One of the hands, Briin, an inoffensive, quiet 
Norwegian (the most peaceable sailors in the world), hap- 
pened to put his case down with the lettered side under- 
neath, which displeased the skipper, who asked him, in his 
ogre's voice, if he hadn't told him the way to handle case-oil. 
Now, the man was evidently doing the very best he could, 
which was evident from his great desire to please, and also 
from the way in which his hands shook. Finally he grew 
so nervous that when he picked up the case to turn it over, 
it slipped and fell with a loud noise on the deck. At this 
the poor fellow jumped back several feet and put up his arm 
to ward off the expected blow ; but the skipper saw plainly 
that it was an accident and was going to let the matter 
pass, when the mate jumped in between them and, catch- 
ing a firm hold of Briin' s right ear, gave it a terrific 
wrench, that slued him round and brought him to his 
knees, while he yelled, "Ain't /told yer how to lay them 
cases down ?" 

34 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Such scenes as this are extremely unpleasant, particu- 
larly as they are always accompanied with boisterous lan- 
guage ; and, as we saw the whole affair, I can say with cer- 
tainty that it was absolutely unprovoked and unnecessary. 
If the man had been of a surly or ugly disposition, and in- 
tentionally put the case down wrongly, some excuse might 
be in order for the mate's conduct ; but this fellow has 
always been unobtrusive, and actually jumps in his desire 
to please. It is generally men of a certain temperament 
that mates pick out to haze, — men with no appearance of 
"sand." I have never known a man of Mr. Goggins's 
sort to try it on a determined-looking, deliberate seaman. 

How calm it was until five o' clock yesterday afternoon ! 
The sea was as if oiled and of a rich blue, fascinating to con- 
template and deeper in color than usual. No stream that 
ever cascaded down a mountain-side could approach in 
transparency the sea-water as found in the remote solitudes 
of the ocean. We had a strange sunset, too, the horizon 
being apparently at an immense distance, with whole chains 
of ragged, golden-tipped clouds, like jagged mountain 
rocks, seemingly a hundred miles away. We had a fine 
breeze all day from east-northeast, which, it is true, 
jammed us on the wind, but it was fresh enough to blow 
us along at seven knots. Latitude at noon, 36° 5' north ; 
longitude, 50° 36' west. 

May 19 

This was perhaps the finest day which we have had yet. 
It broke with the heavens obscured ; but during the fore- 
noon the clouds melted under the influence of the sun and 
an afternoon of dazzling brilliancy followed. A fresh 
breeze whistled out of the east-northeast, giving us as 
much as we could show the sky-sails to ; and the ocean 
was covered with foam-topped waves like immense snow 

35 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

flakes, the crests of which often came tumbHng in glee 
over the weather side. 

Yesterday afternoon at two o'clock we rose the upper 
canvas of a bark on the port bow, bound in the same 
direction as ourselves ; at 4.30 she was abeam, and at 
seven in the evening, her trucks had vanished below the 
horizon astern ! In truth this ship is a flyer on a wind, for, 
in order to pass the other vessel in so short a time, we 
must have sailed almost, if not quite, two miles to her one. 
Again, this morning at daylight, we made out the sails of 
a ship hull down to leeward ; she was then abeam, steering 
about southeast, but during the afternoon we ran her out 
of sight, too. For the past twenty-four hours we have 
certainly done splendidly, logging one hundred and ninety- 
eight miles, hauled as close to the wind as possible. Cap- 
tain Scruggs even went so far as to say that he thought 
that there were only two other American ships afloat that 
could have made more than two hundred miles to-day by 
the wind, — the " Henry B. Hyde" and the "A. G. Ropes." 
Later I asked the skipper which he considered was the 
finest all-round wooden ship ander the flag to-day ; his 
answer instantly was, ' ' the ' Hyde' by all odds ; and not 
only that, but she's one of the finest ships that ever came 
out of a Maine ship-yard. ' ' She was built about ten years 
ago in Bath, by John McDonald, a Nova Scotian and a 
pupil of the famous Donald Mackay of Boston, who turned 
out so many celebrated clippers thirty or forty years ago. 
The ' ' Hyde' ' is a large ship, registering twenty-five hun- 
dred tons ; but in spite of her size she is a three-master, 
being, I believe, the second largest ship of this rig at the 
present time, the British ship ' ' Ditton' ' heading the roll 
of three-masters with a net tonnage of about twenty-eight 
hundred. Almost all sailing vessels of over two thousand 
tons register are now built with four masts. 

36 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Last night I was talking with the mate about sea-birds, 
and he was giving me considerable information of the birds 
on the Pacific coast, when he said, suddenly, " I see a 'awk 
at sea once, sir." "Indeed," said I, "that is very in- 
teresting, for the bird is almost extinct ; it must have been 
a long time ago, for even the eggs now are quite valuable." 
He looked very hard at me then for a few moments, when 
the captain called him away ; and for some time I won- 
dered why he had stared at me so fixedly ; when all at 
once I realized that he meant hawk, not auk ! Latitude, 
34** 4' north ; longitude, 47° 15' west. 

May 20 

Light showers prevailed this morning early, but at ten 
the clouds disappeared, leaving a sky of deep cobalt and 
a glorious, sparkling sea. Fresh winds from east-north- 
east blew all day, giving us frequently ten knots, the ship 
driving along with the even, modulated swing of a pen- 
dulum. The mate says that Captain Scruggs is so lucky 
in making fast passages that in New York they say that he 
carries a fair wind in his pocket and spills it out when 
necessary. However true this may be, the direction of 
the wind could be easily improved at the present time, by 
hauling more to the northward, so that we could come up 
a little ; our position, too, would be a far better one if we 
were five or six degrees more to the eastward, as it is a 
little too soon to make so much southing. Nolens volens^ 
though, southeast has been our course for some time, and 
the skipper jocosely remarks that he expects to see San 
Roque this time. 

We are now in the approximate position of the American 
iron ship " May Flint" (late steamer " Persian Monarch"), 
one of the largest sailing vessels under our flag, when she 
was hove down and dismasted about a year ago in a cy- 

37 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

clone. Captain Nickels subsequently accomplished so fine 
a piece of seamanship that a short account of the whole 
affair might not prove uninteresting. The vessel left Phila- 
delphia bound to Hiogo with a cargo of case-oil on August 
21, and on September 8, about four hundred miles from 
the Azores, she encountered a gale which gradually in- 
creased to a tremendous hurricane, in the centre of which 
she became involved ; and shortly afterward she was hove 
on her beam ends and the fore and maintop-masts and 
mizzentop-gallant-masts, together with all standing gear 
above the lower mast-heads went by the board. Her con- 
dition was really terrible, as all hands were in momentary 
expectation of seeing some of the broken spars alongside 
stave in the hull, as the wreckage was battering and thump- 
ing furiously against the ship. A steamer was sighted 
later on, — the " Craftsman," — ^which stood by the " Flint" 
till the weather moderated, and then offered to tow her to 
New York. This offer Captain Nickels refused, though at 
their request he transshipped his two passengers, one a 
Boston and the other a Chicago man, and they returned to 
New York on the " Craftsman." It is reasonable to pre- 
sume that neither of these individuals will ever step over 
the side of another sailing ship. 

When the cyclone had passed and the ship had come up 
on an even keel. Captain Nickels surveyed the wreck aloft 
and then decided on his course, which was as follows : a 
part of the spars and rigging having been saved, a foretop- 
mast was made from a spare spar, and the stump of an 
old mizzentop-gallant-mast was used for a foretop-gallant- 
mast. The ship carried a spare fore-yard, the lower fore- 
top-sail-yard was intact, and the upper maintop-sail-yard 
was utilized for an upper fore ; the foretop-gallant- and 
royal-yards were saved, thus square-rigging the vessel for- 
ward. A portion of the main-yard, which was broken, 

38 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

was used for a maintop-mast, leaving the mainmast fore- 
and-aft rigged. The mizzentop-gallant-mast, which was 
apparently hopelessly damaged, was fished and repaired 
together with all the yards below it, so that the vessel was 
square-rigged forward and aft, but schooner-rigged amid- 
ships, presenting a most extraordinary appearance. She 
looked at a distance somewhat like two hermaphrodite 
brigs, yet after the repairs had been made, which occupied 
fifteen days, she was successfully navigated into New York 
harbor, a distance of two thousand two hundred miles, and 
on one day logged the extremely good run of two hundred 
and forty knots. For this fine performance the underwriters 
presented the gallant captain with a superb gold watch, 
and well he deserved it, for it was an act of seamanship so 
bold and unusual as to command the applause of Captain 
Nickels' s fellow ship-masters, a class of men who, as a rule, 
are extremely reserved in their expressions of approbation. 
Latitude, 31° 34' north ; longitude, 42° 10' west. 

May 21 

Last night was windy, with a severe squall at one o' clock 
in the morning, with much rain, and we haven' t seen the 
sky-sails since six last evening. 

As I was leaning against the rail yesterday afternoon, 
looking at the mizzen-stay being set up by the starboard 
watch, the captain came up and said, "I've found out 
we've got another cap'n aboard, a fellow called Murphy, I 
believe. I'm going to send him aft to run the ship, and I'm 
going forrad to sleep in the fo'c'sle." The skipper has a 
curious way of saying such things, and we never know 
whether to smile or not. Presently, though, he cast joking 
aside and began to blackguard Murphy in the language of 
the deep sea, saying that when he (the captain) had gone 
forward to see that the regular weekly washing out of the 

39 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

forecastle was properly done, some of the men did not 
seem to relish the process, and he heard Murphy grumble. 
Now, when a foremast hand has been somewhat disagreeable 
for a few days, and at length finds audible fault with various 
things, it is almost certain that some one hour in the suc- 
ceeding twenty-four will be unpleasant for him. Thus with 
Murphy. After supper we were sitting on the deck-house, 
when Captain Scruggs came up and said that at eight bells 
the decision would be reached, whether or not there were 
two captains aboard. He was very nervous and couldn't 
sit still ; which reminds me that I have never yet seen a 
long- voyage skipper who wasn't nervous at even the mildest 
encounter with the men. 

The evening shades fell early, by reason of heavy clouds, 
and at eight o' clock it was dark. Word was passed for- 
ward that both watches were to muster aft, and when eight 
bells had been struck, the eighteen seamen (including the 
bosuns) came trooping down from forward and grouped 
themselves at the after hatch. Here I sent my wife below, 
fearing scenes which she ought not to witness ; while the 
captain at the same moment passed out of the cabin to the 
main deck and faced the men. 

It was an impressive, rugged scene. The wind was 
puffy and uncertain and the decks were wet ; and though it 
was too dark to see the men's expressions, their forms stood 
out clearly enough as they rolled from side to side with the 
heave of the ship, two broad beams of light shooting out 
from the cabin doors and illuminating the showers of spray 
that flew incessantly over the weather side ; the great main- 
sail bridging over the scene with its huge curve, till lost in 
the gloom of the upper sails. 

As soon as the captain appeared, he began to pace 
athwartships between the hatch and the poop, keeping it up 
for several minutes in a dead silence. How well he knows 

40 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

how to handle a crew ! Nothing is more effective than such 
a silence, for it shows the men that the skipper is about to 
act with deliberation. Suddenly he unexpectedly rapped 
out, ' ' Go forrad, the port watch' ' ; and the nine men quickly 
disappeared, wondrous glad to escape, no doubt. Now 
what the captain said to the rest I could not hear, for the 
wind cut his words oH short ; but he walked up among the 
men, shouldering his way roughly through them, until he 
stood directly in front of Murphy, who, though putting on 
some "side," shrunk back from the glare that I knew shot 
from the old man's eye. He spoke to him in the fierce, 
intense tones of a thoroughly angry man ; and, after a con- 
siderable harangue, he seized Murphy by his nasal ex- 
tremity, the size of which afiorded him excellent holding 
ground, and led the recalcitrant youth around in a small 
circle, every few seconds tweaking and twisting his nose, 
till I was surprised that it did not part company with the 
rest of his face. This done, he sent the men forward, 
entered the cabin, sat down, and joined us in a game of 
casino. 

At first this seemed a very puerile manner of administer- 
ing punishment, but it is considered wonderfully effective, 
and, in truth, it is humiliating to be hauled about by the 
nose in the presence of one's companions, I had expected 
that Murphy would have been floored with a belaying-pin, 
that handy instrument of correction which most American 
masters and mates know so well how to wield. But Cap- 
tain Scruggs seems to be restraining himself, owing in part, 
no doubt, to our presence on board, though chiefly to the 
space which the newspapers have been devoting lately to 
aggravated cases of cruelty at sea. Indeed, the skipper 
himself said the other day, "What's a ship-master to do 
nowadays, when the press jumps on him when he gets 
ashore?" He forgets that if the said ship-master con- 

41 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

ducted himself at sea like the captain of a ship ought to, 
the press would have no cause for writing him up. 

The course has been poor, with the wind at times to the 
southward of east, and, horrible to relate, we made a de- 
gree of westing in the twenty-four hours. If we don't 
have a better chance than this, we'll be jammed on San 
Roque in earnest. Latitude 28° 30' north ; longitude, 
43° west. 

May 22 

It is necessary here to make an announcement of a very 
painful nature, an announcement of a fact so lamentable 
and unfortunate that for a long while we tried to believe 
that it could not be. Captain Scruggs has several times in 
the last week been very much under the influence of strong 
liquor ! More than once we have noticed that he exhibited 
a strange uncertainty in his gait, and for two days he has 
been unusually aggressive and sometimes silly in his argu- 
ments. Still, neither of us would acknowledge to the other 
that which we knew in our hearts was true, until last even- 
ing at supper his conduct compelled us to admit the shock- 
ing fact that the master of the ship in which we have but 
just commenced one of the longest aud stormiest of voyages 
was plainly drunk. He had to steady himself against the 
mizzen-mast at the end of the dining-room before he could 
sit down, and during the meal he was for a time a drooling 
idiot. His chief amusement seemed to lie in spilling small 
quantities of maple syrup over the table-cloth, in which he 
then dabbled with his fingers, like a boy with his feet in 
a puddle. The syrup appeared to revive memories of his 
childhood, for he told us stories of his passion for this fluid 
when a youth. Said he : " Why, I used to go out in the 
woods, tap a maple-tree, and let two gallons of surrup run 
into me." No one said a word. " Two gallons !" glaring 

42 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

fiercely at the mate, who, of course, didn't offer any objec- 
tion. Then he caught sight of a small wash-tub, and, turn- 
ing on the mate again, cried out violently, " When I was 
a boy, I used to could drink that right down full er maple 
surrup. This 'ere hain't surrup ; h'its mucilage." Here 
we excused ourselves and went on deck. 

Now, what is all this going to lead to ? Pleasant thought, 
that of knocking about in a gale of wind off Cape Horn 
with a groggy skipper in charge ! Indeed, when we first 
discovered his bibulous inclination, my wife was in despair, 
and the only consolation we have is to be found in the hope 
that the case of whiskey that we have seen is the only one 
on board. We can account now, too, for the innumerable 
times that the captain has popped into his little room, only 
to emerge in a few seconds, smelling furiously of Florida- 
water. Well, we'll probably have fine, light weather through 
the northeast Trades, which we are now sure that we have 
taken ; and at the rate at which the grog is vanishing at pres- 
ent, it will be gone before we reach the squally Doldrums, 
provided that the skipper has but one case. 

In a copy of a nautical magazine on board, I saw an 
account of a singular fact that occurred a short while ago. 
The British ship ' ' Crompton' ' was homeward bound a few 
months since, from Calcutta to Dundee, when one morning 
Captain Lloyd sighted something ahead which seemed to 
be either a capsized vessel or the back of a whale. As the 
vessel approached, however, the captain saw that it was 
neither, but a rock, about sixty feet long, eight feet high, 
and the same broad. He could scarcely believe his senses, 
for the position of the rock was 47° north and 37° 20' west ! 
Imagine a rock's existing in the most crowded ocean on the 
globe, almost every square mile of which it was reasonable 
that at least one vessel had traversed, which had never 
been seen or reported before ! For some time Captain 

43 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Lloyd could not believe that it really was a rock, and so to 
verify it he sailed as close to it as possible ; and as the 
morning was a perfectly clear one, and the hour twenty 
minutes to eight, he was at last compelled to believe the 
evidence of his eyes, that here was a large rock, extremely 
dangerous to navigation, lying five hundred miles north- 
northwest of the Azores ! 

Speaking of those balmy isles reminds one of that ardent, 
skilful yachtsman, the Prince of Monaco. About two years 
ago, while prosecuting some deep-sea soundings in the 
vicinity of the Azores on his steam yacht, he found a bank 
or ledge which rose from a depth of about two thousand 
fathoms to one of something like fifty fathoms, which, like 
the aforementioned rock, had never been charted or re- 
ported. So extremely zealous is the prince in his pursuit 
of knowledge concerning the floor of the Atlantic, that he 
shortly afterward gave an order for a twelve-hundred-ton 
steam yacht (he can well afTord it !) fitted with the most 
recent inventions in connection with deep-sea sounding 
apparatus. I wonder whether he will use the machine for 
this purpose invented by Captain Sigsbee, who commanded 
the battleship ' ' Maine' ' at the time of her destruction. It 
is said that Lord Kelvin, who, when Sir William Thomp- 
son, invented the famous sounding machine which bears his 
name, has stated that Captain Sigsbee has adopted an idea 
in his apparatus which he (Lord Kelvin) had vainly sought 
for years to utilize in his mechanism. If this be true. Cap- 
tain Sigsbee has reason to be a very proud man, for Lord 
Kelvin is, perhaps, the most learned individual now living 
on hydro-dynamics and kindred sciences. 

Last voyage it took us exactly a month in which to reach 
this spot where we are now, which illustrates how uncer- 
tain and erratic long voyages are. All fear of being 
"stuck" in this region, as we were before, has disap- 

44 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

peared, for the Trades have come now without question ; 
and while they are quite fresh enough to suit us, we would 
like to see the wind back two points to the northward. 
Latitude, 26° 18' north ; longitude, 41° 9' west. 

May 23 

Last night was a windy one, and in the middle watch we 
split the mizzen-royal in a severe squall ; so we took in the 
fore- and main-royals, the sea being choppy and the vessel 
plunging a good deal. It is customary to cut the light 
sails in such a manner that a fore-sky-sail will answer for a 
mizzen-royal ; therefore, toward the end of the morning 
watch the fore-sky-sail was unbent and stretched on the 
mizzen-royal-yard, the royals having been set again an 
hour or so previously. It didn't fit particularly well, but 
it will do until to-morrow, when the royal will be repaired, 
as such work is not done on Sunday unless in case of 
urgent need. Sometimes there is necessity for hard work 
on the Sabbath aboard ship, such an instance having oc- 
curred on the ' ' Hosea Higgins' ' on her last homeward 
voyage from San Francisco. It might be first observed 
that, though it is the custom to give the men a holiday on 
Sunday, still if the captain orders anything done, he must 
be obeyed without murmur. On this particular occasion, 
Captain Scruggs saw fit to order one of the bosuns to do 
some work aloft, which he refused. The skipper went 
down on the main deck then and spoke to the man, a lusty 
young German, asking him why he refused to turn to. 

" Because it's Soonday, zur," he replied. 

"Sunday? Never heard of it. What is Sunday ? Who 
told you anything about it ?' ' quizzed the old man. 

" I say, a man's not supposed to turn to on Soonday, 
zur," repeated the bosun. 

"Oh, he's not," quoth the skipper; " then we always 

45 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

put him where he'll have plenty of leisure. Mr. Goggins, 
the irons." 

(This same mate came around from California in the 
* ' Higgins. ' ' ) 

The irons were brought, and the man, quietly enough, 
but with angry eye and sneering lip, put his hands behind 
him ; the irons were locked on, and he was led down into 
the lazarette, where he sat calmly down, and the key was 
turned. Six hours afterward the mate went to him with 
some food and found that the man had in some way con- 
trived to shift his hands around in front and was disposed 
to be ugly. Therefore he was taken up into the after part 
of the wheel-house (these structures on American ships are 
divided into equal portions, one containing the wheel and 
binnacle, the other the rudder-head, tiller, flag-locker, 
etc. ) , where a staple was driven into a carling, to which 
the man's hands, still ironed, were secured, leaving him so 
that he could not sit down, his wrists being about six 
inches above his head. Now, this posture for twelve hours 
is enough to break the heart of a wild beast ; yet this bosun 
stood there without a word for thirty hours, refusing food 
or drink during that time ! At the end of every six hours 
or so the mate went to him and asked if he had had 
enough, to which the Teuton would answer ' ' Naw. ' ' His 
endurance yielded at the thirtieth hour and he implored to 
be released, which he was six hours later, and for the rest 
of the passage he was a model sailor. 

At this time we are on or near a favorite whaling ground, 
great numbers of these leviathans being taken in this 
vicinity every year by schooners. In the old days a first- 
class whaling bark cost about thirty-five thousand dollars, 
and was manned by perhaps thirty Western Islanders, or 
natives of the Azores. They were owned by companies 
who supplied the vessels with provisions, clothes, and out- 

46 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

fits, and also advanced certain sums of money to captain 
and crew (which did not go to crimps as it does now) 
while they were away on a three years' cruise. No wages 
were ever paid to any one, but all hands received a per- 
centage when the ship returned, the bulk, which remained, 
being divided among the stockholders. The most lucra- 
tive whaling voyage of which there is any record was made 
by the "Onward" of New Bedford, which, after a forty- 
one months' voyage, stocked two hundred and seventy- 
five thousand dollars, the captain's share alone amounting 
to thirty-three thousand. More startling even than that is 
the fact that during the fifty-two years which formed the 
golden era of Massachusetts' s whaling industry the total 
value of whale products landed in New Bedford alone 
amounted to one hundred and forty-five million dollars ! 

We had quite an agreeable shock this morning when the 
carpenter walked aft to breakfast with a clean, new, checked 
shirt on, it being Sunday. He had combed the sawdust 
and other little inconveniences out of his unctuous locks, 
and he made quite a respectable appearance as he wabbled 
into the cabin. 

Fresh Trades blew all day, and we have made good a 
course about south-southeast. Latitude, 23° 28' north ; 
longitude, 40° 15' west. 

May 24 

This day broke with a strong breeze and a cloudy sky ; 
but, as usual, the vapor cleared away at ten o' clock and a 
superb afternoon followed. 

Nearly all wooden ships have to be pumped out twice 
every day, once in the morning watch and again at six in 
the evening. It is almost impossible to build a tight 
wooden vessel of any size, and the rougher the sea the 
more water she will make, on account of laboring. Of 

47 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

course, the leakage varies greatly, but I suppose that our 
own is an average one, about one thousand strokes of the 
pumps being necessary to free the ship at each session of 
thirty minutes, and the aperture through which the water 
escapes is about as large as a fire-hose. 

Last evening, sadly needing exercise, I descended to the 
main-deck after supper and announced to Jimmie Rumps, 
the young starboard watch bosun, that it was my intention 
to assist in pumping ship, if the men had no objection ; at 
which they smiled, while Rumps assured me that any such 
assistance would be eagerly welcomed. A ship' s pumps are 
worked by means of handle-bars attached to large, heavy 
fly-wheels, six feet in diameter ; and the motion of pump- 
ing is similar to the old-fashioned way of lifting rock out 
of an excavation by man-power derricks. I therefore 
grasped the handle-bar with the reckless assurance of a 
man who knows not what he does, having opposite to me 
a raw-boned, powerful Englishman, Coleman. "Shake 
her up' ' came from the second mate in another moment ; 
and, urged by the strong arms of the men, the great wheels 
began to slowly revolve. As moments passed, though 
with no indication of acceleration in the speed, I began to 
fear that after all I was not to find much exercise in this 
way, when all at once there was a distinct increase in the 
movement, and my breath came shorter and quicker. 
Faster and yet faster flew the iron handles till we must 
have been doing sixty revolutions to the minute. I was 
nearly pitched off my feet at every turn, and my head com- 
menced to swim. Usually, at the end of fifteen minutes, a 
halt is called for a breathing-spell ; but now we went on 
and on with no signs of cessation, and the men wrought 
with wooden faces. Then instantly I saw that they were 
having their joke, initiating me, as it were, and that they 
had no intention of resting till the trick was over. The 

48 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

pace was quite frightful ; but I decided to faint on the deck 
rather than yield. Round went the relentless, cruel han- 
dles, carrying me with them, like a nautical Don Quixote 
on the windmill, while Jimmie Rumps, that young limb of 
Satan, made facetious observations, at which the men 
smiled compassionately. 

" Fine exercise this, mister" ; and, " How'd you like to 
do this when we're turnin' the Corner with two feet of 
water on deck ?' ' 

A ghastly smile was the only answer that I could sum- 
mon, and in five minutes more I should certainly have suc- 
cumbed to dizziness and want of breath, when I heard the 
voice of the mate, sounding strange and distant, "That'll 
do the pumps." I let go the handle, grinned like a skull 
to show how happy I was, summoned all my strength, 
tottered to the poop ladder, crawled up, fell into a deck- 
chair and for five minutes endured the bitter agonies of a 
man thoroughly " pumped." This was a good deal better 
than giving in, however, and it is my intention to hammer 
away at it for the rest of the voyage. 

To-day the sun was overhead at noon, the declination 
and latitude being the same. We made a somewhat better 
course during the past twenty-four hours, about south 30° 
east, and a heavy bank in the northeast presages a breeze 
from that quarter, so that we may come up a couple of 
points farther. The captain continues his libations with no 
indication of a change ; evil as the thing is, though, there 
is some compensation in it for us, as he is usually asleep in 
his room all day. An ill wind, and so on. Latitude 20° 
3' north ; longitude, 38° 23' west. 

May 25 

Last night we celebrated the Queen's birthday for Mr. 
Goggins' sake ; and the old man had a fete all by himself 
4 49 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

with a bottle of Monongahela, The first part of the pro- 
ceedings consisted in burning balls of tar-soaked oakum 
mounted on sticks secured to the weather rail. Each ball 
was of the size of man's head and burned with a brilliant 
flame that lit up the whole ship with a red glare, sending 
now and then a stream of sparks across the deck, quite 
alarming till we remembered that everything in the waist 
was drenched with spray. 

The second portion of the festivities was more elaborate 
and was begun by carrying a barrel of oiled shavings up on 
the poop. The open end of the barrel was headed up and 
a hole a foot square was then cut in the side. Of course, 
the captain insisted on performing this piece of carpentry, 
and he entertained himself for ten minutes, jabbing away at 
the. hard wood with a little key- hole saw till he was in quite 
a frenzy. 

"Now gimme a match and I'll show you some fire- 
works," said he. 

"Hi don't think it'll burn, Cap'n Scruggs: the hole 
ain't big enough," meekly observed the mate. 

" I didn't ask you whether you thought 'twould burn or 
not," responded the skipper, who had snapped about an 
inch off the end of his little saw. * ' I asked you for a 
match." 

Finally the contents of the barrel were ignited, and the 
skipper, seizing the chimes at one end, bade the mate do 
the same at the other ; then to lift it horizontally, swing it 
to and fro, and when he said "three," to let it go over the 
stern. But the mate got it wrong in some way, and let go 
at " two," and as the captain hung on, there was a good 
deal of excitement for a few seconds. The barrel all but 
hauled him overboard after breaking off two or three finger 
nails, banged loudly against the counter, turned over, and 
dropped into the water hole-side down. 

50 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

The scene which followed was too harrowing for repro- 
duction, but it was interrupted by the loud voice of the 
lookout, " Light right ahead, sir." Instantly all was 
silent. The skipper jumped up on the deck-house, while 
the mate ran for the top-gallant-forecastle, whence he shouted 
back, "All right, sir, she's keeping away"; and in a few 
minutes, a bark of about seven hundred tons under top- 
sails passed us to leeward, by the wind, bound north. 

Mr. Goggins entertained us at dinner to-day with a new 
version of an old sea-fight. The captain did not come to 
the table until supper, owing to his celebrations, which he 
prolonged far into the night ; so, after the soup had been 
cleared away at dinner, the mate began, ' ' Did you ever 
hear, sir, and ma'am, of the true 'istory about Sims 
(Semmes) in the battle of the ' Kearsarge' and ' Hala- 
bama' ?" " No, " said I ; " let us have it. ' ' 

"'Twon't take long to tell," said the mate. ''He 
warn't in the fight at all. Where was he? Aboard o' that 
English yacht, the 'Greyhound,' or whatever she was, 
a-lookin' on ! Yes, sir ; I was in Liverpool then, and he 
come in and went on board the ' Great Western,' and her 
cap'n spit in his face, and him without the courage to 
reply. ' ' 

Mr. Goggins had a sousing yesterday which diverted all 
hands for some time. He was coming down from forward 
on the weather side, with that peculiar confidence assumed 
by captains and mates when the spray is flying, as if it 
were impossible for a drop of water to strike them. The 
mate had reached the main hatch, when he heard the 
swash of an unusually heavy sea, and casually turned his 
head in time to see a perfect storm of spray flying down 
upon him. It hit him fairly between the shoulders. 
He staggered, fluttered about for a moment, and then 
flapped heavily and helplessly against the hatch-combing, 

51 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

where he sat up finally in a foot of water, drenched to the 
bone. 

Our fine breeze holds, but we are still hard on the 
wind ; course, southeast by south, true. Latitude, 17° 
15' north ; longitude, 36° 50' west. 

May 26 

Last night was a squally one and the sky-sails were 
furled early in the evening, hands being stationed at the 
royal-halliards as well, until they, too, were stowed at three 
in the morning. 

We had an accident yesterday afternoon, which, though 
comparatively trivial, occasioned some lively work. My 
wife and I were playing backgammon at the forward end 
of .the deck-house in the first dog watch, and everything 
was running very smoothly, when, with a snap and a rattle of 
chain links, the lee maintop-gallant-sheet was carried away. 
In a second there was an uproar. Two men jumped with 
great alacrity into the weather rigging and in a few minutes 
were astride of the lee upper maintop-sail-yard-arm, work- 
ing like demons, with the long length of chain sheet 
waving and slashing among the braces as the ship rolled in 
the beam seas. Louis, the Frenchman, swung himself into 
the rigging immediately afterward, stationing himself on 
the royal-yard-arm, followed by Mr. Rarx and three other 
men. 

It wasn't long before the work of repair was progressing 
satisfactorily, when the skipper appeared at the cabin door, 
and, without preliminary, commenced to shake things up a 
little. He shook with such success that in three or four 
minutes Jimmie Rumps began to simply hop into the air 
at intervals, the men were reduced to idiots, while Mr. Gog- 
gins charged about, gulping with excitement ; for the cap- 
tain would sandwich in such observations as, "I wonder 

52 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

whether I shipped you for a mate or a farmer"; and re- 
questing him, in soft but deadly tones, to be " good enough 
to secure that sheet so it'll hold till to-morrow, anyway." 
After snarling everything up into a hundred grannies, Cap- 
tain Scruggs vanished, and the work proceeded quietly. 
The only man who kept his head was the second mate. 
This French seaman, Louis Jacquin, is an ideal sailor. He 
is built like an ox, short and very broad, with a bull neck 
thrust well down between massive shoulders, a back all 
corrugated with muscle, and, what is very remarkable in a 
sailor, large, strong legs. He is as swarthy as a Spaniard, 
with blue-black hair and short moustache, and a wide, 
powerful jaw, with a pleasant scowl, if such can exist, on 
his lean, determined face. He is a man to lean on in an 
accident. 

We were glad to hear that when repairs had been made, 
the men were going to mast-head the top-gallant- and royal- 
yards to the stimulus of chanties ; and sure enough, when 
the top-gallant-halliards were manned, the invigorating 
strains of " A Long Time Ago' ' broke out in a hoarse but 
agreeable barytone. A sailor's chorus of this sort is a very 
inspiring thing. The whole of the crew, eighteen brawny 
fellows, were stretched in line, clear across the deck, with 
David MacFoy, the lusty-voiced Scot, at the end, to sing 
the verses ; and at the conclusion of each line a roar would 
go ringing over the water that must have been heard be- 
hind the horizon, the halliards coming in a full yard at 
each swing. The main-royal went aloft to the tune of " A 
Poor Old Man," and the boys seem to find so much pleas- 
ure in their chanties and their faces so shine with merri- 
ment that even the sight of them is enough to put a man in 
a good humor. 

Over against this pleasant diversion looms up gloomily 
to-day's evening repast. The captain had again imbibed 

53 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

enough to make him quarrelsome, and during the half- 
hour that we were at table the mate was so jerked about at 
the end of the skipper's tongue that, objectionable as he is, 
we could but pity him, for in five minutes he was in a run- 
ning perspiration. The only one who enjoyed the situation 
was the little Malay steward, whose face shone with delight 
as he moved noiselessly about the table with his gentle 
" scuse" (excuse), which he utters whenever he places a 
plate before us. It might be stated that the mate and the 
steward of a ship are at perpetual war ; for the former always 
has charge of the beef, pork, and flour, which he invariably 
grudges to the steward. 

The skipper has surprised us by handing me his sextant 
now and then, at about a quarter to noon, with the injunc- 
tioU) "Just look out for her to-day," and has then disap- 
peared below, to lie concealed often for several hours. We 
made the discovery to-day that he does this to avoid making 
himself ridiculous when taking the sun ; for naturally a 
man requires all his faculties to know exactly when the 
sun is at meridian. Latitude, 14° 34' north ; longitude, 
35 '^ 12' west. 

May 27 

Our good luck still follows us, for the Trades are stronger 
than ever. We made two hundred and twenty-two miles 
in the twenty-four hours, and for the last ten days our 
average daily run has been one hundred and ninety miles. 
Not very many vessels can show such a record in the north- 
east Trades at the end of May, and while two hundred and 
twenty-two miles would be merely a fair run with a free 
wind, it is extremely good work close-hauled with the 
leeches of the sky-sails lifting. It is true that we are still 
four degrees too far west for this latitude, but I expect that 
we'll fetch by San Roque all right anyhow. " Where will 

54 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

we lose the Trades?" is in every one's mouth ; forty- eight 
hours will, no doubt, see the end of them, and then for the 
Doldrums and rain. It is very hot now, but the atmos- 
phere is quite dry. 

The captain hasn't boozed any all day, and at dinner he 
was in normal condition, and we had a long talk about the 
Scotch clippers of forty and fifty years ago. I asked him 
which he thought was the fastest sailing ship ever launched ; 
he was in a good humor and answered pleasantly, " Well, 
that's a big question. Some will tell you that the ' Sover- 
eign of the Seas' was the smartest ; others, the ' Andrew 
Jackson'; some, the 'Flying Cloud,' which went out to 
San Francisco in eighty-five days, twenty-one hours, in 
1857. These were all American ships, as I suppose you 
know ; but the fastest ship, I think, that ever left the 
ways was the ' Lothair, ' of Aberdeen, and I believe she 
was faster than that other Scotchman, the 'Thermopylae,' 
with her sixty days from London to Melbourne. I'll tell 
you what happened to me once : I was second mate of a 
Newburyport ship, and we were running our easting down 
bound out to Canton, and were somewhere near Tristan 
d'Acunha, when we sighted a vessel astern. It was blow- 
ing hard from the nor' west, and the next time I looked, 
a couple of hours later, there was the ship close on our 
quarter, and we doing twelve knots. ' Holy jiggers,' says 
I to the mate, ' there's the " Fly in' Dutchman." ' ' Naw,' 
says he, ' its the ' ' Thermopylae. ' ' ' But when she was 
abeam a little later, she hoisted her name, the ' Lothair,' 
and its been my opinion ever since that she was making 
mighty close to seventeen knots." Then I asked him 
what he thought of the runs of some of our old tea-clippers 
of from four hundred to four hundred and forty miles. 
"Don't believe it," was all he said. It is very possible 
that the ' ' Lothair' ' was doing better than sixteen knots at 

55 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

that time, and one of the most prominent young naval 
architects in New York told me once that if he got the 
order, he could design a sailing vessel which, under favor- 
able conditions, would log eighteen knots. 

The best authentic day's run which I know of was made 
by the ship in which we sailed from New York to Calcutta 
three years ago, on her next eastern voyage to Anjer. She 
was running her easting down in ballast not far from Am- 
sterdam Island, and from noon to noon on one occasion she 
sailed three hundred and fifty-one miles, an average of fifteen 
miles an hour ; I mean knots, of course. Captain Kingdon 
wrote to me of this performance from Passaroean, and as- 
serted positively that it was done by some of the best obser- 
vations which he ever got in the Southern Ocean, and that 
dead reckoning had nothing to do with it. Indeed, that 
whole passage was a very quick one, as he went out to 
Java in eighty-three days from New York, and broke the 
record, as far as he knew, from the longitude of Cape 
Agulhas to Anjer, having covered that immense distance 
in twenty-one days. I told Captain Scruggs about this, 
and he doubted it, until he learned the vessel's name. 
' ' Oh, ' ' said he, * ' the ' Mandalore' ; well, maybe she did. 
I saw her in the dry-dock once, and there never was such 
a bottom on a merchant ship ; 'twas like a yacht's." And, 
in truth, the handsomest vessel which I ever saw, taken as 
a whole, alow and aloft, was the ' ' Mandalore' ' of London, 
built at Stockton-on-Tees. Seen, as we often saw her 
afterwards, moored in the Hooghly at Calcutta, among 
scores of the finest sailing ships in the world, she was the 
star of the fleet, the pride and very life of her captain. 
Poor, dear old Kingdon ! The voyage on which he broke 
the record from Good Hope to the Straits of Sunda was the 
last he ever made. The ' ' Mandalore' ' sailed from Banjoe- 
wangie, bound to Boston on the return passage, but called 

56 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

a few weeks later at Table Bay with the captain sick. He 
pluckily continued, though against the doctor's orders, 
but was soon afterwards landed at St. Helena ill with can- 
cer, the vessel proceeding in charge of the mate. Captain 
Kingdon then went by steamer to London via Madeira, 
but was too far advanced in life for an operation, so he was 
ordered to Cairo, in the hope that the dry atmosphere 
would prolong his life. But his constitution was not able 
to hold out much longer, and two months after his arrival 
in Egypt died Ray Kingdon, true friend, master mariner, 
gentleman. Latitude, 1 1 ° 25' north ; longitude, 33° 14' 
west. 

May 28 

The wind god is so exceedingly gracious to us at present 
that I cannot but think that he is saving himself to swoop 
down upon us in fell wrath at the Horn. Here we are 
bowling merrily along within five hundred miles of the 
equator, doing two hundred and twenty miles in the 
twenty-four hours, with an unlimited prospect of wind 
ahead ; and if we could maintain this speed of nine knots, 
we would cross the line on Sunday, nineteen days from 
New York. There are sure to be several days of calms 
between the Trades, though, so let us call it twenty-five 
days. 

During the whole of yesterday the captain kept as sober 
as a lord chancellor, until ten o' clock last night, when he 
took a drink, which set him off again. He was very talk- 
ative when we left the deck at 10.30, and the last thing 
that I remember before dropping off to sleep was, " You'll 

have an easier time of it if you break a few of their 

heads. ' ' This to the second mate after he had had 

two more drinks. We knew by this he was in for another 
round of festivities, and my wife said this morning that he 

57 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

was charging around the cabin all night, snoring and groan- 
ing, falling over camp-chairs and door-sills. I have known 
him to sink into a stupor on the cabin sofa, shoot off with 
a whoop in a lurch of the ship, wallow on the floor till he 
struck the table-legs, and then peacefully continue his 
slumbers in that attitude. He doesn' t like my mixing with 
the men so much, especially when pumping-ship ; he is 
very suspicious, and said last evening that he shouldn't 
think that I'd want to come into contact with such men, 
forgetting how much more interesting they are than he is. 

If sailors can be induced to talk, they are the most en- 
tertaining people as a class which it is possible to find. But 
it is very hard for a stranger to break the ice with them ; 
and if the stranger should be a gentleman it makes it twice 
as hard, for they will always be extremely reserved in his 
presence. The only way to do if you want them to talk 
freely among themselves (which is much the most amusing) 
is to ask them questions and try to start conversations with 
them at every opportunity ; generally, at the end of a week, 
they will see that you really Hke to converse with them, the 
ice will gradually melt, and from that time forward, if you 
should ever feel gloomy and sulky, go down on the main- 
deck and stand by the galley during the second dog-watch, 
and listen to the witty passes at each other ; in fifteen min- 
utes you will be shaking with laughter, for theirs is real 
humor. 

At the pumps this evening I asked the Frenchman sev- 
eral questions, and found him not at all averse to talking, 
though his English is very bad. In speaking of the South- 
ern Ocean, he said that his preference lay in favor of the 
Horn voyages, saying that the Good Hope seas were too 
short, meaning that in the event of a very heavy sea it is 
best to have as long a one as possible. Probably he was 
thinking of the Agulhas Bank, where there is at times 

58 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

possibly the most dangerous sea in the world, — a Bay of 
Fundy sea multiplied by ten. Across this bank, in a 
westerly direction, flows a swift current that issues from 
the Mozambique Channel, called now the Agulhas Cur- 
rent, and this, meeting the westerly gales, produces enor- 
mous, hollow seas, from which no vessel, however buoyant, 
can keep free. 

What a splendid fellow this Gaul is ! What a back and 
legs ! and his wrists are as large as some men's ankles. 
He has a really engaging smile, too, in spite of his bull-dog 
jaws and shaggy brows. Opposite to me to-day pumped 
Jimmie Rumps. Curiously enough, he is the only sailor 
whom I have ever heard swear in joking among them- 
selves, however they may talk alone in the forecastle, and 
he does so because he thinks that it is big. "There's a 
fellow I'd like to see on the pumps," he remarked, quite 
an ugly look coming into his face ; and, glancing astern, I 
saw the skipper descending the weather-poop ladder. 
Though many of the men were evidently of this opinion, 
not a word was said by any of them ; for might I not repeat 
their sentiments aft in the cabin for aught that they knew ? 
Therefore the observation was received with scowls and a 
dead silence, which continued until Rumps again broke in 
with, " Last voyage I was in the American ship ' Ivanhoe,' 
and I was nearly starved to death !" " Eh ?" said Louis, 
sharply. ' ' I said I was starved in the ' Ivanhoe, ' " re- 
peated Jimmie. "Oh," replied the Frenchman; "I 
t' ought you meant zees sheep ; you'll find no bettair food 
anywhere zan here." It is not often that a sailor will 
acknowledge this, and it speaks very well for Louis. 

" Say," Jimmie went on, " I've had enough of the sea, 
and if I can, I'm going home to Brooklyn on eight wheels 
[i.e., railway car] ; and lemme give you a tip on San 
Francisco ; don't you miss the baths, though it'll cost 

59 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

you ten cents, and a quarter for a fresh-water swim. And, 
say, you go over and see Oakland ; but I dunno if they've 
got the fare down to five yet. ' ' 

It is rather surprising that Captain Scruggs doesn't take 
an interest in keeping track of his various voyages, plotted 
of? on the different charts, as Captain Kingdon did. The 
latter used some which had sixteen voyages pricked off on 
them as plain " as ink could make it, forming a very useful 
aid for future work, as he could select the average from 
them all, for each voyage as it progressed. Our skipper, 
however, takes no such pains, and so far hasn't even looked 
at an ordinary chart. To-day my wife asked him to show 
her where we were, at noon, and he hauled out from under 
the sofa an old, ragged, hydrographic wind-chart, and after 
much stertorous breathing he managed to stab the position 
on the paper with the dividers, being so palsied from last 
night's potations that he had to steady one hand with the 
other before he could hit the chart within several degrees 
of where we were. Latitude, 8° 24' north ; longitude, 
31° 40' west. 

May 29 

The end of the Trades is at hand. After blowing us 
through nearly twenty-five degrees of latitude, the wind 
began to let go yesterday afternoon and to simultaneously 
haul to the southward, while an immense pall of blue-black 
cloud rose slowly out of the southwest and solemnly spread 
itself over the clear sky, with an indication of thunder- 
squalls in the ' ' white heads' ' which crowned its summit. 
Sure enough, in the middle watch there was some mild 
thunder and lightning, but hardly any rain. However, a 
drizzle started later on, and as the morning was a soft one 
and the atmosphere almost as heavy and hot as the steam 
from a kettle, — a typical tropical morning, — the men were 

60 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

turned to scrubbing the paint-work generally. It was a 
very long, tedious job, for every particle of white paint had 
been transformed into a dirty drab in the New York docks. 
I never saw such a change in a vessel as the men, starting 
at the taffrail, worked their way forward, — poop, bulwarks, 
boats, skids, everything putting off the grimy look, and 
assuming in its stead a glossy whiteness which almost hurt 
the eye. 

It is strange that we have no head-pump here. On the 
' ' Mandalore' ' there was a very powerful one, worked by 
four men, and a line of two-inch hose that reached to the 
after hatch. Our method of washing down the decks, 
though, is as primitive as irrigation in India, for all the 
water must be hoisted over the side in a canvas bucket 
and dumped into a cask, whence it is taken out as 
wanted. 

Speaking of the ' ' Mandalore' ' reminds me of a gruesome 
tale which MacFoy, the bosun, told me last evening. So 
broad is his brogue that it was rather hard to understand 
him, but I gathered the following : One day, about nine 
years ago, there started from Hamburg, bound to San 
Francisco, the big Liverpool ship " Falls of Ayr." The 
weather growing very bad in the Channel, though, she up 
helm and ran back for the Downs, to anchor till the gale 
should break. Shortly before she sailed the ' ' Mandalore' ' 
left Hull, also bound around the Horn to San Diego, on 
what MacFoy said was her maiden voyage. After getting 
well out into the Channel, though, and finding it as thick 
as pea-soup, she, too, ran back for the Downs, and before 
anybody knew what was happening, with a fearful crash she 
hit the ' ' Falls of Ayr' ' head on, well aft on the quarter, 
dividing her nearly in two and smashing her boats, which 
she carried aft, Liverpool fashion. Very curiously, the 
' ' Ayr' ' had no after companion-way, entrance to the main 

6i 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

cabin being effected solely by means of the doors on the 
main-deck. These, being of iron, crumpled like paper 
under the impact of collision, and then jammed, so that in 
the hurry and confusion they bafifled all attempts at open- 
ing, and before anything could be done the ship foundered, 
carrying down with her every soul aft, — captain, two mates, 
steward, and cook, caught like flies in a trap. Nor was 
this all. Three boats had been broken into match-wood, 
leaving but one unharmed, in which only a handful of the 
men and two apprentices escaped. ' ' And look again, sir," 
continued David, ' ' she' s the unluckiest ship that ever left 
a yard. Two years later she ran down a large Belfast ship 
off Pernambuco, one of the Star Line, — I think 'twas the 
' Star of Greece,' — though both ships finally made Buenos 
Ayres for repairs. ' ' 

And this was the dear old ' ' Mandalore' ' which carried 
us so happily across thirteen thousand miles of ocean only 
a short time ago ! We had absolutely no suspicion of 
those accidents before, and I asked the bosun if he couldn' t 
be mistaken, but he answered, ' ' I never forget a ship, sir ; 
this one I mean is a London ship built at Stockton nine 
years ago. ' ' That settled it ; but how strange that we 
should never have heard of either case ! 

There are two boxes of Sicilian oranges on board which 
are holding out remarkably well ; for though they are get- 
ting a little dry, not one has so far spoiled. We also 
have good cool water to drink yet ; for in spite of the 
great heat of the last two days, it has not penetrated the 
big galvanized iron tanks below. Indeed, the water is so 
much cooler than the air that a blur forms on the outside 
of a tumbler. But this will soon change, and we will 
have drinking-water at a temperature of ninety degrees for 
a fortnight. Latitude, 6° 5' north ; longitude, 30° 30' 
west. 

62 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

May 30 

This afternoon was very hot and calm, and we had the 
first hard rain of the voyage. As we had had no wind at 
all previous to this shower, the courses had been hauled 
up to prevent chafing ; but some of the buntlines and 
clew-lines had been let go when the rain came, although as 
there was not much wind in the squall, the men were 
allowed to drop braces and everything else and run for 
tubs and buckets to be filled with fresh water, so that for 
the next thirty minutes the decks presented a remarkable 
sight. The head-yards were braced up, while the main- 
and after-yards were still squared, with the starboard clew 
of the foresail, both clews of the mainsail, and the port- 
clew of the cross-jack hauled up, while the decks were 
covered with a wonderful snarl of ropes. However, we 
filled every bucket, tub, and cask on board, while the men 
ran for their soiled clothes and spread them out all over 
the forward deck to soften in the warm rain, the mate 
producing three pairs of old trousers which he carefully 
deposited on the after-hatch. Odd notion, this washing of 
ordinary clothes ; I had never heard of such a thing. The 
rain lasted for an hour, and the captain had the bath-tub 
filled and I had a delightful fresh-water bath, the tempera- 
ture of the rain being 79°. Only those who have been 
compelled to bathe for weeks in brine can appreciate the 
luxury of fresh water. 

Our calm reminded the mate at dinner of a curious cir- 
cumstance which happened once in the Pacific. Quite a 
fleet of ships started out together from San Francisco bound 
around the Horn ; and, keeping well together, they all fell 
into a calm streak just north of the line which lasted for 
twelve days. During this time several ships passed this 
fleet about fifty miles to the westward of them (among 
which was the " Wandering Jew," an American ship, since 

63 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

burned) with half a gale of wind ! This story seems to be 
quite true, as the "Jew's" log-book for that day showed 
that she was a degree west of the becalmed vessels, and 
mentioned that they stowed the fore and mizzentop-gal- 
lant sails. A fact of this sort shows what different weather 
conditions may exist at a distance of less than one hundred 
miles. 

We witnessed a punishment this afternoon which I 
thought was never resorted to except in the navy ; and, 
even there, the construction of a modern war-ship neces- 
sarily precludes it We were sitting at the break of the 
poop, when we saw a man coming down from aloft in a 
hurry, as though he were especially anxious to reach the 
deck ; when, to our surprise, no sooner had he done so 
than MacFoy gruffly said to him, ' ' Back you go ; and 
this time to the sky-sail-yard ; d'ye hear?" 

So up he went again (it was Louis Eckers, the youngest 
and dullest seaman in the ship) till he reached the main- 
royal, when of course he had to ' ' shin' ' up to the sky-sail- 
yard, as there are never any ratlines above the royals. 
Presently, though, he stood upon the yard, one hundred 
and eighty feet above the water, grasping the slender sky- 
sail pole with one arm, and surveying the deck quite com- 
fortably. When he had been there about half an hour, 
the bosun roared out * ' Come down' ' ; and it was not till 
then that we realized that he had been mast-headed for bad 
conduct. It seems incredible that a punishment so humane 
should be resorted to on a Yankee ship. 

The eating on board, aft at any rate, is still extremely 
good, particularly the cof5ee, which is put up in convenient 
packages for sea use and labelled ' ' Best Maracaibo' ' ; thus 
there is no deception, the greater part of ' ' Mocha' ' having 
its origin in Central or South America. Every day at 
meals the mate seems to grow more hideous and gro- 

64 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

tesquc, and he is the only man whom I ever saw to whom 
the latter adjective could be applied. His nose, which is 
enormous, is canted far over to the right ; one nostril is the 
size of a slate-pencil, while the other would fit a small gas- 
pipe, and his dense, kinky moustache becomes at meals the 
lurking place of various liquids and solids ; while ears like 
water-lilies expand from his head like those of a bat. His 
table manners are actually shocking, though in some ways 
he is perhaps not much worse than the skipper, who con- 
trives to decorate the lapels of his coat with a spray of soup 
at each dinner. Some men embellish the region of their 
waist-bands with various fluids, but Captain Scruggs is 
dexterous enough to decorate his entire front with such 
things. 

Mr. Goggins has a stock phrase which is simply too 
absurd, when he declines anything further at table. Sup- 
pose the captain to say, " Have some more potatoes, sir?" 
he will reply, closing one eye and leering at the dish with 
the other, " No-o-o, sir, I thank you, sir ; I've 'ad sufficient, 
sir, I thank you, sir." This answer is invariable, and it is 
never abbreviated or curtailed in any way. He has also of 
late acquired the extremely objectionable habit of coming 
to the table with bare feet, which I am going to ask the 
skipper if he cannot prevent. Latitude, 5° 16' north ; 
longitude, 30° 5' west. 

May 31 

Our progress for this twenty-four hours was not such as 
would delight the heart of a steam-yachtsman, for our dif- 
ference of latitude was precisely nothing, and we made 
twenty-five miles of westing, which would indicate a cur- 
rent. The heat, of course, is great, and also the oppres- 
siveness, everything being indescribably sticky and soft. 
The temperature of the sea has risen to correspond with 
5 65 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

that of the air, both standing at about eighty-four degrees ; 
severe rain-squalls with little or no wind necessitate oil- 
skins on deck, for if your clothes get wet they will be hours 
drying in this weather; indeed, they will not dry at all, unless 
you put them on, when the heat of the body evaporates 
the moisture. As we have been several days now in very 
hot weather, we have had plenty of opportunity of compar- 
ing the cabins of a wooden and an iron ship in the tropics. 
As might have been expected, that of the ' ' Higgins' ' is 
cooler than that of the iron ' ' Mandalore' ' ; but the differ- 
ence is surprisingly little, not more than two or three de- 
grees. The principal disparity we notice at night, as the 
" Mandalore' s" top-sides used to retain the heat of the sun 
for so long a period that it was frequently two o'clock in 
the morning before the temperature fell perceptibly. The 
thermometer now in our room stands at about 85° day and 
night as against 87° and 88° in the other ship. 

Yesterday we caught a dolphin. It was a true dolphin, 
delphinus delphis, a mammal, the bottle-nose of sailors ; 
seafaring people giving the name to a small beautifully- 
colored fish, coryph(£7ia hippuris, which isn't a dolphin at 
all. 

Scores of the big, graceful creatures had been disporting 
themselves around the ship for several hours, as many as a 
dozen sometimes simultaneously breaking the water in a 
space which apparently could have been covered with a 
table-cloth. By and by they aroused the blood-loving 
propensities of the mate, who forthwith rigged his harpoon 
and stationed himself on the bowsprit-shrouds to watch for 
his prey. Presently a dolphin shot under the martingale- 
boom, when zip, the heavy iron flew through the air and 
passed completely through the unhappy creature, whose 
blood instantly transformed the lovely blue of the sea to a 
rich crimson. Here Mr, Goggins showed indications of 

66 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

insanity and bawled for the watch, who came running up 
on the forecastle-head with beaming faces. A dozen hands 
seized the harpoon-line, and a few hearty pulls landed the 
dolphin alongside the starboard anchor amid the wildest 
acclamations from the men. As he was to furnish fresh 
food for them for several days, however, their joy was 
natural, and he was dragged down on the main deck, 
cleaned, and skinned, which latter process was accomplished 
by slitting the hide into longitudinal sections, and then, 
starting each strip, three hands would take a strong hold 
and with a hard wrench the strip or ribbon would be ripped 
off with a noise like the tearing of heavy silk ; one of the 
men, the facetious Charley Neilsen, suggesting the propriety 
of starting a chanty. After this had been accomplished, 
the carcass was suspended from the mainstay, bearing a 
singular resemblance to a hind-quarter of beef. 

This morning we had dolphin liver for breakfast, which 
could scarcely have been detected from calf's liver, and 
this, with some new-laid eggs and salt mackerel, afforded us 
much the same breakfast which we would have had ashore. 
"And the flesh you won't know from beef; eh, cap'n?" 
said Mr. Goggins. But we hardly believed this and our 
distrust was justified when a strange dish was placed before 
the skipper at dinner. " What on earth is that?" I asked. 

"Oh, this is a dolphin stew," quoth Captain Scruggs, 
with much satisfaction, " and that's just pork fat on top to 
flavor it." 

Whatever it was, the thing was in a deep yellow dish and 
looked like a wretched meat pie, the slabs of pork taking 
the place of crust. But yet stranger things were to be dis- 
closed ; for when the captain inserted a spoon and sculled 
around in the recesses of the cavernous redoubt, he brought 
to light and placed upon our plates irregular lumps of what 
seemed to be coke, while some of the fragments were of 

67 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

that dead black that pitch assumes, smooth in places, and 
in others sharp and ragged. I can assure the reader that 
a dolphin ragout is a strange thing. 

It will no doubt surprise some people to know that the 
largest steamship line in the world is the Hamburg- Ameri- 
can Company. That is, its vessels, which number one 
hundred and twenty-four, aggregate the greatest number 
of tons. The new freight steamers "Pennsylvania" and 
" Pretoria" of this line are mammoth vessels, and two more 
of the same class are now building by the Vulcan Works at 
Stettin. Their gross tonnage is about twelve thousand 
five hundred, with a displacement of twenty-three thou- 
sand tons, and a carrying capacity of twenty thousand 
tons. It is marvellous that a vessel should be able to 
carry, safely, twenty-twenty-thirds of her own weight. 
The new White Star freighter ' ' Cymric' ' slightly exceeds 
these vessels in carrying capacity, and it requires six hun- 
dred and twenty- five carloads of freight to fill her enor- 
mous hull. 

Below will be found a list of the five largest steamship 
lines, with the aggregate tonnage of each. 

Tons 

Hamburg American 341,060 

British India 295,000 

North German Lloyd 266,000 

Peninsular and Oriental 251,000 

Messageries Maritimes 279,000 

The Cunard Line is simply swallowed up in these figures, 
and even the White Star Line, with all its freighters, falls 
below them ; while the Japanese Nippon Yusen Kabushiki, 
with one hundred and sixty-two thousand tons, exceeds 
the Cunard, which the average citizen would perhaps 
place first on the list. Latitude 5° 16' north ; longitude, 
30° 30' west. 

68 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

June i 

Three weeks at sea this day, and we are involved in the 
vortex, so to speak, of the Doldrums, with all which the 
name implies : intense heat, sultry, humid atmosphere, a 
baking sun which glares down between heavy showers and 
an almost total absence of wind. We were congratulating 
ourselves last night, for at 8.30 we took a northeasterly 
wind, which sent us along at seven knots through a sea 
spangled with phosphoric jewels and leaving a wake of sil- 
very light astern, like the trail of a meteor. 

"About, about, in reel and route, 
The death-fires danced at night." 

But on issuing from the companion-way this morning, 
io ! a great calm was lying upon the waters ; while the 
sun, like a globe of incandescent gold, sent down terrible 
rays of heat, trebly intensified by the brassy glare from the 
ocean. Perspiration dripped from the faces of the weather- 
hardened seamen upon the least exertion, the pigs breathed 
in short gasps and the poultry stalked about the deck with 
open bills. 

" Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, 
'Twas sad as sad could be, 
And we did speak only to break 
The silence of the sea. 

"All in a hot and copper sky 
The bloody sun at noon 
Right up above the masts did stand, 
No bigger than the moon." 

A typical day of the low latitudes this. To me there is 
ever something wonderfully impressive in an absolute calm, 
when no breath of wind tarnishes the surface, and the only 
evidence that the ship is not resting upon a plane of glass 

69 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

is to be found in an occasional slow, deep surge, hardly 
ever absent when in the profound depths of the ocean. 

All around the northern and eastern horizon hung superb, 
dense masses of violet cloud, descending at intei-vals in 
steaming showers, while broad on the port bow lay be- 
calmed a large square rigger, hull down, but lifting at 
times on the swell till we could see her courses hanging in 
the buntlines in easy, graceful curves. Nearer and nearer, 
by imperceptible degrees, she approached, till at eleven 
o'clock she lay not more than three miles distant, — a 
magnificent four-masted bark, bearing the stamp of the 
Clyde upon her powerful iron hull, and presenting, with 
her double top-gallant-yards and splendid sheer, a per- 
fect illustration of the modern sailing ship, of the largest 
and finest class. How beautiful and stately and proud she 
looked as she floated along, apparently conscious that she 
was homeward bound, and fully aware that she was one of 
the "swift shuttles of an empire's loom" which Kipling 
mentions in those fine verses ' ' The Coastwise Lights of 
England!" 

"I'll bet there's nothin' ter eat aboard there but rice, 
hard bread, and water, ' ' said a croaking voice at my elbow, 
and the greasy countenance of the grizzly old mate was 
thrust suddenly into the foreground, totally destroying the 
beauty of the scene. Mr. Goggins (always Mr.) never 
loses a chance to blackguard his native country, which 
shows better than anything else what sort of creature he is. 
We made our number to the ship, to which she replied 
with her own name, but which we unfortunately could not 
make out, though, owing to the position of our flags, she 
may have been able to do so. 

It is pleasant to study a great vessel like this, and to 
wonder how old she is and what great gales she must have 
witnessed in her career, walking up and down the world ; 

70 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

now perhaps carrying five thousand tons of grain from 
California to the starving multitudes in India ; now beating 
her way round tempestuous Agulhas, full to the hatches 
with tea and silk ; now struggling against the thunderous 
southwesterly monsoon in the Bay of Bengal, homeward 
bound from Calcutta with twenty thousand bales of flossy 
jute in her great body. God speed the gallant ship ! Lati- 
tude, 4° 24' north ; longitude, 29° 35' west. 

June 2 

This afternoon was a perfect scorcher, even worse than 
yesterday, and the sun glittered down from a sky absolutely 
cloudless. Half a dozen albacores gambolled lazily around 
the ship all day, sometimes casting themselves several feet 
out of the water and then falling back with such a splitting 
crack that it was marvellous how their skins withstood it ; 
and as these fish usually weigh about two hundred pounds 
and are some five or six feet in length, they made quite a 
fascinating display. 

Last night we had what will probably be our last look at 
the pole-star for a couple of months. The sky was very 
clear then in the north, showing Polaris just above the 
horizon ; theoretically, the altitude of this star is the ap- 
proximate latitude in, and it ought to be visible at, the equa- 
tor ; but owing to vapors, etc. , the polar star is generally 
not visible south of 5"^ north. 

My wife is remarkably well in all this heat, a fact well 
illustrated by her hearty appetite at meals, considering that 
what we eat for dinner is usually supposed to be the ac- 
companiments of cold weather. Our noon repast to-day, 
as an example, comprised a liberal portion of dense, steam- 
ing pea soup, hot Boston baked beans, and brown bread, 
followed, topped ofT with, oh, heavens ! smoking plum 
pudding and Edam cheese in lumps as large as walnuts ! 

71 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Most people would consider this a throttling diet on the 
equator, and so it is, more or less ; but our appetites are so 
fine that just now we don't mind such a little inconvenience 
as Boston beans bubbling in pork fat. 

At supper the heat was worse than ever and we were 
hurrying to get on deck, when my wife called attention to 
the strange, yellow tinge of a cloud-bank right ahead, 
which we could see through the cabin door. 

" Oh, it's nothing at all," said the skipper ; but, as if to 
nail his words, there came a blast of cold wind, which heeled 
the ship over to the scuppers and sent the captain and 
mate flying on deck. We followed instantly, and beheld a 
thrilling sight. Ahead, from southwest to east, the sky 
was covered with thick, windy-looking, saffron clouds, 
rushing rapidly toward us ; while the sea, as black as be- 
neath a summer thunder-squall, was whipped into angry, 
spitting white-caps, through which we were just beginning 
to force our way. In the northwest, over against this 
gloomy scene of dun vapor and dark, foam-flecked water, 
gleamed the sun, just setting in golden splendor, encir- 
cled with wonderful clouds of the most delicate blues and 
grays. 

Meanwhile, the ship was in the wildest uproar which we 
had seen yet. The newly washed clothes had been hung 
in lines across the poop, and they were thrashing about 
like tattered flags ; while ever and anon detached clothes- 
pins whistled by, necessitating very lively dodging. On 
the main-deck sixteen sailors were doing absolutely nothing 
but casting off the wrong braces ; while ropes were flying, 
sails were slatting and booming, the bosuns were jumping 
about sulphurous with profanity, and Mr. Goggins in five 
minutes had so far lost command of himself as to lean help- 
lessly against a capstan, quite speechless. Captain Scruggs 
stood at the weather poop-ladder shouting commands, to 

72 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

which no one paid any attention, such as, ' ' Brace up those 
head-yards there ; what's the matter with you, Mr. What's- 
your-name? Come out o' that trance and git a watch- 
tackle on the foresheet. Hurry up that handy-billy now ; 
or maybe you want me to show you what a handy- billy is." 
(This with blighting sarcasm.) " Bosun, get that jib-top- 
sail in !" The trumpeting of a rogue elephant couldn't 
have been worse than the roar in which these orders were 
given, and the relief was infinite when objects began to 
straighten themselves out and the skipper went below. At 
seven o'clock we were doing eight knots, steering south- 
west by the wind. "The southeast Trades," said the 
captain, positively; "they always come in a squall like 
that. ' ' But, so far from this being the truth, the wind had 
let go entirely at eleven, and we were once more lying idly 
on a motionless sea. Latitude, 3° 50' north ; longitude, 
29° 3' west. 

June 3 

Even Captain Scruggs' s proverbial good luck seems to 
have vanished, for we have not made more than fifty miles 
per diem for several days, usually drifting about all over 
the ocean without steerage-way, until a squall comes along 
every two hours or so and sends us ahead four or five 
miles. The skipper lately has kept his temper well for so 
intolerant a man, but it is now oozing rapidly away, and 
he rolls out a reverberating oath at the men every few 
minutes, at whom he rages for apparently nothing. He 
seems to think that the most laborious tasks ought to be 
accomplished instantaneously, and he stuns Jimmie Rumps 
now and then with something like, " I'll learn yer to obey 
with the end of a rope, for yer can't pull any more than 

somebody's d cow" ; and constantly asks him, "Ain't 

yer got a mouth on yer to answer with ?" 

73 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

I had a talk with Coleman the other day. This man is 
the graven image of the conventional Mephistopheles, and 
arrived, together with Olsen, at New York, on the Ameri- 
can ship " S. P. Hitchcock' ' a fortnight before we sailed, 
ninety-two days from Honolulu. Coleman couldn't say 
enough in favor of Captain Gates (indeed, every one speaks 
well of him), adding, " She's a bloody sight different from 
this packet." In saying which he alluded to Captain 
Scruggs' s abusive manner when talking to the men, which 
is entirely unnecessary and doesn' t do any good. Sailors, 
of course, can't bear this when they are doing their best, 
and will make it just as hard as they can for a captain in 
return. In the face of several recent outrageous pieces of 
cruelty on our ships, I do not think that our skipper will 
personally lay hands on the men. Still, you cannot tell to 
what length he will go when we have been together three or 
four months. 

The mate approached us last evening and gave it as 
his opinion that we'd never see the big steel Bath ship 
' ' Dirigo' ' again, ' ' Why not ?' ' said I ; " she had not 
been more than one hundred and sixty days at sea when 
we sailed." 

" I know ; that's all right," he answered ; " but she was 
spoken off the Horn by the Briddish ship ' Howth, ' that 
arrived a month before we left. Oh, you'll never see her 
again." That's the way with this individual, — he always 
thinks that something is going to happen. Then he sud- 
denly asked, — 

* ' Do you know wot Dirigo means ?' ' 

I told him that I did know what it meant, — " I direct." 

"Naw," he replied; "hit's the motto of the State of 
Maine, and means ' go ahead' ' ' ; and when I tried to tell 
him that that was a very free translation of it, he said, " I 
don't care for no translation ; in the Greek language it 

74 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

means ' go ahead. ' ' ' Such incontrovertible evidence was, 
of course, indisputable. 

Mr. Rarx, the second mate, is of an altogether different 
type from Mr. Goggins. He has more natural intelligence, 
is very neat and clean, and is, besides, a far better seaman, 
and handles the men in such a way as to get twice as much 
work accomplished in a watch as the mate. But I am in- 
clined to think that he has a very bad temper, from the 
motion he made with a fid the other day at two of the 
sailors who had made a mistake with a splice ; and when 
he told me about an easy voyage which he had just made 
in the " William H. Smith," and added, " I didn't have to 
speak cross to the men once from Singapore to New York," 
he looked at me very hard, and it seemed as though he 
were "sounding" me, to see whether I would believe 
improbable yarns. Still, I may be doing him injustice. 

Perhaps the most agreeable man in the ship is David 
MacFoy, and we talked together for half an hour yesterday 
at about six o'clock. "This is a tedious place, mister," 
said he ; " we were three weeks here in the Doldrums a 
couple of months ago in the 'P. N. Blanchard,' from 
Manila to Boston. We'll be awhile here now if signs 
count ; and what's that we've got ahead of us? — the Horn 
in mid-winter ! Oh dear, dear ! The last time I went 
round to the westward was in the ' Tam o' Shanter,' a 
couple of years ago now, and we were forty-nine days off 
Cape Horn, and that much snow that in half an hour the 
lee decks would be full o' drift. But d'ye know, I'd rather 
double the Horn to the west'ard than run the eastin' down 
goin' out to China and Australia. If yer do get heavier 
sou' west gales there, you're hove to comfortable-like ; but 
runnin' to the east'ard, it's a terrible thing to have them 
greyhounds a-chasin' yer. On the last passage out to 
Wellington two hands were washed overboard out o' the 

75 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

waist, another was washed away from the wheel off the 
poop, and a fourth poor fellow fell from the upper mizzen- 
top-sail-yard, and only lived ten minutes. Oh ! that other's 
a crool cape, sir. No, I'm not married ; there's too many 
grog-shops around. Now, look : when I landed in Boston 
a few weeks ago from the ' Blanchard' I had a hundred and 
seventy-six dollars comin' to me. That was on a Friday. 
The next Monday I landed in New York with fifty cents, 
and signed here next day ; but • that was pretty quick 
work, ' ' 

This, and much more, did the big, handsome Scot reveal 
to me, in the pleasant accents of his native land, and with 
that knack of story-telling which so many ship-masters 
imagine that they possess, to the chagrin and distraction of 
their friends. I expect many more agreeable half-hours 
with this interesting fellow, for he instils much individuality 
into his tales. Nor will I ever forget him as he leaned 
against the pin-rail in the dusk this evening, his clean 
checked jumper lying open across his brown chest, as 
round as a barrel, and his head shaded by a wide-brimmed 
felt hat. He is an ideal bosun. 

Being now in one of the great ocean cross-roads, we are 
constantly sighting vessels, both steamers and wind-jam- 
mers, bound north and south, the steamers being those on 
the voyage to and from the river Plate and Brazil to the 
United States and Europe. Yesterday we sighted five 
vessels, but none near enough to speak. Latitude, 3° 40' 
north ; longitude, 27° 50' west. 

June 4 

Our calm hot weather continues with no indications of a 
break, and the sun is continuously obscured by heavy, 
cumulus clouds, though the heat is scarcely so overpower- 
ing as it was a day or two ago. But the humidity is suffo- 

76 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

eating, and as we have no sun, rugs, towels, and every- 
thing else feel almost wet to the touch. Last evening we 
had a sharp squall at 6. 30, for which we lowered the sky- 
sails and luffed smartly at the same time. Very heavy rain 
fell too, making the fourteenth hard shower of the day. 
In the middle watch last night, the mate said that the 
heaviest rain fell which he had ever seen, together with a 
single dazzling lightning-flash and a simultaneous crash of 
thunder. 

In our lives we have witnessed many scenes of great 
tumult, but never have I seen any to compare with that on 
board this ship this afternoon at four o'clock. Captain 
Scruggs had been growling and yapping around the main- 
deck all day, cursing everything, and particularly the light 
air which came fanning along, whenever it fanned at all, 
straight out of the south. Thus far we had not once 
tacked ship, though several times the wind had shifted so 
as to bring it on the other side. We were crawling along 
then this afternoon toward the east when eight bells went 
and both watches came on deck ; while in another minute, 
without previous warning, the skipper yapped out, ' ' All 
hands 'bout ship." Paint-brushes and serving-mallets 
were dropped and tar-pots stowed away, while every one 
hastened to obey the summons. 

Now, there is always more or less confusion the first time 
that a square-rigger tacks or wears on a voyage, though if 
everybody keeps his head there ought not to be so very 
much ; and if our skipper had only let Mr. Goggins attend 
to the small details there wouldn't have been a tenth of 
the disorder here. From the moment that the helm was 
put down, however, until we filled away on the other leg 
the ship was like a mad-house at recess. I don't believe 
that there ever was heard on a vessel's deck such yelling, 
or howling, which is a more comprehensive word. Nearly 

77 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

every order given by either mate the captain at once coun- 
termanded, sometimes without knowing it, often on pur- 
pose. The main-deck was full of capstan-bars, lead blocks 
and braces, which had been cast off when the order came 
to 'bout ship ; and over and among these encumbrances 
eighteen men wrangled, stamped, and swore to an accom- 
paniment of chattering blocks and thrashing canvas, as the 
ship came up to the wind, the mates cufhng and thumping 
the awkward ones with unflagging diligence, Mr. Goggins 
lumbering heavily aft to administer a painful booting to 
that hapless creature, Neils Briin, who has been in almost 
continuous trouble since the mate nearly pulled his ear off, 
a fortnight ago. 

And where was the master of the ship all this time ? 
Behold him at the break of the poop raging like the 
heathen, while at times he shook both fists together above 
his head and swore like a pirate, as his voice went booming 
and crashing above the noise of battle. But the full glory 
of the scene was reached when, a few moments after he had 
roared out " Maintop-sail, haul !" the main-brace jammed 
in the brace-block and wouldn't render. His passion was 
almost fearful as he called upon the blank-blank-blankety 
who fouled the brace to show himself ; while he jumped off 
the poop and raged away, tearing the braces apart as 
though he were wringing some one's neck. Even the 
second mate lost his head once as the old man shouted to 
his bosun, " I told yer to let go that t' gallant-brace, didn't 
I? Do yer want me to show yer how it's done? I will ; 
but I'll wipe the deck with yer first. Where are yer 
steerin' the ship to, yer at the wheel ? Maybe yer' d like 
to have her aback ?' ' 

Now, if we had never been to sea before, we might have 
supposed that this was the necessary and proper manner 
of putting a ship about ; but as we had seen the ' ' Manda- 

78 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

lore" under similar conditions several times, where there 
was almost perfect order during such evolutions, this scene 
was positively astounding, and disgusted us with Captain 
Scruggs. He is manifestly a fine seaman (American ship- 
masters are invariably that), but he loses command of 
himself and every one else as soon as there is anything to 
be done. 

Although the American sailing ships have decreased in 
numbers amazingly in the last twenty-five years, there 
being in 1871 twenty- four hundred and sixty-six square- 
rigged vessels under the fiag, as against four hundred and 
fifty-six at the present time, there seems to be good reason 
to think that an increase in this branch of ship-building is 
about to commence. Arthur Sewall, the great Bath ship- 
owner, has a large three-thousand-ton vessel completed 
and the keel of another one laid down, both of steel, 
while it is not improbable that he will build a fleet of such 
sailing ships. Think of our immense trade to the East 
fifty years since, and then ponder on the fact that not 
long ago the only vessel which entered the port of Calcutta 
flying the American flag for a period of four years was a 
British-built steam-yacht ! That sailing vessels in general 
are not passing away as rapidly as people suppose, how- 
ever, was shown by a circumstance that occurred about six 
months ago, when the freight-steamer ' ' Massachusetts' * 
arrived one day at New York from London and reported 
that in twelve hours she passed fifty-four sailing vessels of 
various rigs, all close-hauled on the starboard tack ! Her 
approximate position then was latitude 48°, longitude 27°. 

For several days the men have been setting up the rig- 
ging fore and aft, and they are now finishing the mizzen- 
top-gallant, royal and sky-sail backstays. It was a tedious 
job, but intensely interesting to watch, and I had never 
seen it done before on a square- rigger, as the other ship's 

79 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

rigging was set up with turnbuckles. Latitude, 3° 22' 
north ; longitude, 27° 50' west. 

Junes 

We think that we have taken the southeast Trades, 
though the wind as yet is nothing to the eastward of south. 
Last evening the dense rain-clouds and vapory masses of 
the Doldrums gave way to a clear sky dotted with trade 
clouds, and a lovely night followed^ the moon in the first 
quarter being visible for the first time in many days. We 
had also a magnificent view of the southern heavens, with 
the golden Cross now well up, wheeling slowly through the 
sky, the finest constellation in the south. Immediately be- 
neath, though a little to the left of, the Cross a strange 
thing is to be observed in the shape of what seems to be a 
large pear-shaped blot in the surrounding stars, bearing a 
close resemblaace to a dark cloud, about the same size as 
the Cross itself. Within this space, which sailors call the 
Black Cloud, not a single star can be observed with the 
naked eye, though the sky round about the Cross in every 
other direction is thick with stars of the third and fourth 
magnitude. 

At eight o' clock this evening we tacked ship for the third 
or fourth time to-day, and by reason of so much practice 
this herculean task was accomplished with a little less noise 
than before. Still, the disturbance was very great, with a 
prodigious amount of shouting and bad language from the 
skipper, which once more rose to a climax when one of the 
fore buntlines caught on something, just after he had sung 
out ' ' Let go and haul. ' ' Captain Scruggs, who was stand- 
ing at the extreme forward end of the cabin-house, here 
executed a few fantastic steps to relieve his mind, and being 
clearly outlined in the moonlight, he made a very idiotic 
appearance. The manoeuvre of tacking on this occasion, 

80 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

by the way, was a very impressive one, the white moon- 
beams transforming the dull gray canvas into cloths of 
satiny sheen as the great yards revolved to maintop-sail 
haul. 

It must be said that the captain was justified to-day 
in kicking at the weather. The breeze was of the very 
faintest sort, and as often as we tacked ship the wind act- 
ually seemed to jump around and head us off, so that, after 
we were once more braced up on the port tack this evening 
and the wind shifted back and into the south, heading us 
oH to nearly west, we really began to pity the skipper. 

The phosphoric display here is the most beautiful which 
we have ever seen. Our wake every night is a swirling, 
gyrating, writhing path of liquid fire, in which glitter thou- 
sands of apparently incandescent globes as large as billiard- 
balls, with now and then a suggestion of fiery serpents 
twisting and wriggling through the glowing mass. 

" Beyond the shadow of the ship 

I watched the water-snakes ; 
They moved in tracks of shining white, 
And when they reared, the elfish light 

Fell off in hoary flakes. 

" Within the shadow of the ship 
I watched their rich attire ; 
Blue, glossy green, and velvet black, 
They coiled and swam ; and every track 
Was a flash of golden fire." 

How singularly devoid some men are of decent feelings ! 
I talked last evening at the pumps with Murphy (he whose 
nose was pulled) and Rumps. The latter was boasting as 
to how long he could stay drunk without seeing startling 
visions, and rejoiced in saying that he had been in the lock- 
up of more than one city in the United States. Murphy, 
6 8i 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

however, bowled him completely over by remarking quite 
calmly, ' ' I been in the jail of every large seaport in the 
world." 

Though the temperature is just as high, 84° at noon on 
deck, the humidity has almost disappeared and the weather 
seems clear and settled. Latitude, 2° 49' north ; longitude, 
27° west. 

June 6 

Indications seem to point with certainty to our having 
taken the southeast Trades, for a strong breeze sprang up 
at six this morning, descending upon us in a squall. We 
trembled lest it should prove naught but a pufT ; but we 
had the satisfaction of seeing it steadily increase, so that 
four hours later we had logged thirty-four miles, close- 
hauled, laying our course, the wind being strong and true 
at southeast. It might not be thought amiss if I state 
here what the origin of the trade-winds is. They are due 
to the inrush of cold air from the poles towards the equator 
to take the place of the warm current which rises from the 
latter. Owing to the easterly rotation of the earth on its 
own axis the air from the north becomes a northeast wind, 
and that from the south a southeast wind. The hot air 
flows to the poles as an upper current, and, having been 
cooled there, it descends to the surface of the earth to form 
the westerly or anti-trade-winds. 

At 8. 30 this morning a vessel was sighted to windward, 
bound north, which soon resolved itself into a tramp 
steamer. Here was an excellent chance to be reported ; 
so telling the helmsman to hold her up as much as pos- 
sible, the captain hauled out the flags DRHF, bent them 
on to the signal-halliards, and when he thought that the 
steamer had opened out our monkey-gaff, he told the mate 
to hoist away ; which, being a very simple operation, he 

82 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

accomplished without accident ; and in a few seconds the 
flags which spelled our name were fluttering merrily away 
a hundred feet above the deck. Anxiously we waited, but 
no answering pennant showed from the steamer, and we 
were about to blast her skipper with deep-sea anathemas, 
when she was observed to alter her course at right angles 
and come bearing down upon us, pushing a big snow-bank 
of foam ahead of her bluff bows. On she came, as if to 
lay us aboard, until she was within half a mile, when she 
shifted her helm again, describing a deep circle, while at 
the same instant the familiar little red-and-white-striped 
pennant flew up to her triadic stay, meaning " I understand 
you' ' ; down came our flags on the run and ' ' Report me all 
well" was hoisted instead, or rather it wasn't hoisted until 
after the skipper had discovered that the miserable Goggins 
had run up "Steer after me" by mistake, which necessi- 
tated some lightning changes, as the stranger was moving 
rapidly away. Again the gay little triangle fluttered from 
the latter, while we ran the stars and stripes to the gaff and 
dipped three times, the other reciprocating with the scarlet 
ensign of Great Britain. The steamer then kept away, and 
in half an hour was a blot in the northeast ; from her course 
the skipper thinks that she was from Pernambuco bound to 
the Cape de Verde. Now, here is a man who deserves to be 
publicly commended, and I wish that we had caught the 
steamer's name, that it might appear in these pages. How 
many steamer captains are there who will alter the course 
for the purpose of speaking a mere wind-jammer? This 
incident seems to refute the assertion which is often made 
about the careless and what-are-you-to-me-spirit of British 
ship-masters, for no one could be more civil or polite than 
the captain of this tramp ; rivalling in this respect the 
Germans, who are said to be the most painstaking of all 
the nationalities in the reporting of vessels. 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

I nearly forgot an agreeable break in the monotony of 
yesterday. We sighted a brig in the forenoon ahead and 
to windward ; and though she had a lot of fore and aft 
canvas set, which ought to have held her up well, we rapidly 
ate up towards her, so that at four o'clock she was ahead 
and a little to leeward. We gradually crawled up on her 
then, and in another fifteen minutes had her abeam, so close 
that the features of her helmsman were clearly visible. 
Then I thought of our megaphone, presented to us just 
before we sailed, and here was a grand opportunity of 
putting it to practical use. So I brought it up on deck 
and the following conversation ensued : 

" Hello ! what brig is that?" 

"The 'Venturer,' of Nova Scotia, from Philadelphia 
for — ' — " Here followed a terrific aggregation of syllables 
which we couldn't catch. 

" When did you sail ?" 

"May 7, from Delaware Breakwater. What ship is 
that?" 

"The ' Hosea HIggins,' from New York for San Fran- 
cisco. Please report us all well. ' ' A flourish of the arm 
from a man on her poop answered our request, which 
ended the interview. The megaphone worked beautifully, 
though they are of no use in windy weather. Of course, 
the mate, never having seen one, felt it his duty to jeer 
at it, which he did by saying, ' ' That thing, whatever 
yer call it, 's no good ; I could hear better' n you without 
it." 

Reference to a copy of the Maritime Register on board 
showed that the ' ' Venturer' ' was of one hundred and 
ninety-three tons, hailed from Weymouth, Nova Scotia, 
and was bound to Margem do Torquary, Brazil ; small 
wonder that we couldn' t understand it before. It reminds 
me of an Italian bark which sailed from New York a short 

84 



9 i^ 




BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

time ago for Alexandretta, the " Nostra Signora del Sacro 
Cuoro di Jesu." 

The " Venturer" was what is usually known as a tidy 
little vessel, and she made a really fine picture as she surged 
buoyantly along over the watery hillocks. Accurately, 
she was a brigantine, and we got several very fair photo- 
graphs of her, though the light was bad. Altogether, we 
sight about a dozen vessels a day now, which shows how 
densely populated the Atlantic is near the equator. 

A circumstance quite surprising is the frequency with 
which the mates leave the poop when on watch ; indeed, 
a good deal more than half of their time is spent on the 
main-deck ; whereas on ships of foreign nations it is the 
general rule that the ofificer of the watch shall never leave 
the poop unless he has some excellent reason ; common 
sense shows the desirability of always keeping an ofificer 
where he will have full command of the ship. 

Well, we're doing grandly now, and at noon were only 
ninety- five miles from the equator, and should cross it be- 
tween one and two o'clock to-morrow morning. Latitude, 
1° 35' north ; longitude, 27° 52' west. 

June 7 

South latitude ! Our expectations were fulfilled, for we 
entered the Southern Hemisphere in the morning watch, 
crossing the great circle which circumscribes the earth at 
fifteen minutes past four. Thus we have entered upon the 
second stage of our voyage ; and while the first quarter 
was certainly not everything which could be desired, we 
reached the line in very good time, twenty-seven days 
from New York. If we had had even a little better luck 
in the Doldrums, four days could have been stricken from 
the twenty-seven ; this is a far better passage, though, than 
we made in the " Mandalore," when we had been forty-nine 

85 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

days at sea before we finally cut the equator. Perhaps the 
most comforting part is the fact that the skipper seems to 
have exhausted his supply of aguardiente, for he has been 
very solemn and strictly sober for three or four days. 
Heaven grant that he has no more grog ! 

This weather is so magnificent now that the memory of 
our late smothering calms, during which we were eight 
days in making four degrees of southing, has entirely passed 
away, for we are humming through the water at eight 
knots, close-hauled, with streaming scuppers, while the 
superb southeast trade-wind sings a blithesome tune in 
the rigging. It is the grandest wind that blows ; so cool 
and steady, and the ocean so sparkles under its influence, 
with a snow-white crest topping each sea, reflecting the 
splendid blue of the heavens in its azure depths, that ex- 
istence becomes an unbounded delight. I think, too, that 
the finest cloud effects which we sav/ on our first voyage 
were in the southeast Trades. True to precedence, yes- 
terday afternoon at four o' clock the northeastern sky was 
obscured by a huge dark cloud of the color of indigo, and 
rendered doubly so by the sun shining upon it ; this cloud 
extended almost to the sea-rim, black and frowning, while 
immediately beneath it, on the horizon, appeared some far- 
away masses of cumulus cloud of a most beautiful cream 
color, enchanting the mind with their loveliness and re- 
sembling great yellow icebergs. 

As we were contemplating this spectacle, MacFoy sung 
out something which I thought was ' ' Vessel on the lee. ' ' 
The mate then went aloft for a better view, and when he 
had come down I asked him if he could see the vessel, to 
which he replied, "St. Paul's Rocks." This excited us 
at once, and I went up to the cross-jack-yard, from which 
elevation I plainly saw against a dark cloud what appeared 
to be twin light-houses, like Thatcher's Island lights at 

86 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Cape Ann, Massachusetts. Although fifteen miles distant 
at the time, and the weather was slightly hazy, these two 
rocky columns rising h"om a depth of two thousand fathoms, 
the only land within hundreds of miles, produced an effect 
wonderfully majestic and solemn. The exact position of 
the rocks is o° 55' 30" north and 29° 22' west, and they 
are five in number, though only two are of considerable 
altitude, the loftiest being one hundred feet in height. 
They are separated from each other only by narrow chasms, 
so that until you approach very close the appearance is 
that of a single island. The whole space occupied by St. 
Paul's Rocks does not exceed five hundred yards in length 
and three hundred in breadth ; and while Darwin concluded 
that they were not of volcanic origin, more modern sci- 
entists — Renard, Geikie, and Wadsworth — have decided 
that they are eruptive. These rocks are totally devoid of 
vegetation, but are the resort of incredible numbers of sea- 
birds, both gannets and noddies, as well as a certain spider, 
while the water in the vicinity swarms with fish, seven 
varieties having been taken by the ' ' Challenger' ' during a 
very short stay. 

Captain (afterward Admiral) Fitzroy, when in command 
of the ' ' Beagle' ' during her celebrated five years' voyage, 
visited these rocks, and wrote an admirable description 
thereof. Among his observations is the following : ' ' The 
multitude of birds covering the rocks was astonishing, and 
they suffered themselves to be kicked about and killed with 
sticks ; at the same time those on the wing even darkened 
the sky. Numbers of fine fish, like the grouper of Ber- 
muda, bit eagerly at baited hooks ; but as soon as a fish 
was caught a rush of voracious sharks was made at him, 
and notwithstanding blows of oars and boat-hooks, the 
ravenous monsters could not be deterred from seizing and 
taking away more than half the fish that were hooked." 

87 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Had it been earlier in the day we would have stood in 
toward the rocks to behold the surf which rages inces- 
santly against the weather-side. But it was too late ; and 
even as we looked the lofty obelisks began to fade away, 
and at 6.15 we had what I hope will not be our last look 
at the lonely St. Paul's Rocks. The Atlantic Ocean near 
the equator, between the meridians of 18° and 23°, is sub- 
ject to frequent and violent earthquakes, which have the 
effect upon a vessel like that of being dragged over a reef, 
or that of a heavy chain-cable being suddenly run out 
through the hawse-pipes. 

The most singular fact in relation to the component parts 
of sea-water is the variation in the proportion of salt ; for 
every ton of Atlantic water evaporated there is yielded 
eighty-one pounds of salt ; ditto Pacific, seventy-nine 
pounds ; ditto Arctic, eighty- five ; while the Dead Sea 
heads the list with one hundred and eighty-seven pounds, 
though I have never seen such statistics in regard to our 
Great Salt Lake. 

Although the temperature in the shade to-day was very 
agreeable, the sun's heat was terrific. It is customary to 
refer to a " baking sun," but I should call that of to-day a 
boiling sun, on account of the moisture ; and it is strange 
that on a day like this the sun's rays will not dry out a wet 
towel, though exposed to them for several hours during the 
hottest part of the day, so great is the humidity. Latitude, 
0° 49' south ; longitude, 29° 53' west. 

June 8 

These are fine Trades, though the squalls are severe 
and sudden. A few words here, in passing, as to squalls. 
What landsmen often call a squall sailors call a puff, such 
as are experienced along our coasts with a northwest wind, 
lasting a few seconds. A sailor's squall often lasts for 

8S 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

thirty minutes and is accompanied with heavy rain, while 
it can be observed approaching in the form of a nimbus 
cloud touching the ocean a long while before it reaches the 
ship. 

In this twenty-four hours we did two hundred and thir- 
teen knots, an average of more than nine within the hour, 
while in many of the squalls we must have been going 
nearly twelve. How many yachts are there which can 
equal this on a bowline? Ship-masters, however, cannot 
realize how fast a yacht can sail with a light wind ; they 
all seem to think that a yacht sails best in a gale. Cap- 
tain Kingdon often used to say to us in the Southern 
Ocean, when we were doing twelve knots before a fresh 
gale, "Ah ! this is where I'd like to see an able yacht ! 
Sixteen knots, eh?" And he couldn't understand that 
under those conditions a smart yacht could sail but little, 
if any, faster than we were doing. But what is even more 
difficult for them to grasp is the speed of a racing yacht in 
what they call a light air. Sometimes when we were fan- 
ning along at, say, five knots, I used to worry Captain King- 
don by telling him that a seventy-footer would run him out 
of sight in that breeze in a few hours. He refused to be- 
lieve that any yacht could make nearly ten knots while the 
" Mandalore" was doing perhaps five. 

This morning we had a heavy sunrise squall, for which 
we had to let go the royal halliards, the sky-sails having 
been stowed during the night. But, quick as the men 
were, the wind was swifter yet ; for before the clew-lines 
and buntlines could be manned a great rent was made in 
the mizzen-royal, and in a few minutes the second mate 
reported that the upper foretop-sail was in the same condi- 
tion ; both were, therefore, unbent and lowered as such, 
while a brand new mizzen-royal was sent up, the first of the 
strong new sails which will be bent before we reach the bad 

89 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

weather. It was the hardest squall which we have had yet, 
and the wind and rain made a thunderous noise while it 
lasted ; yet, high above the din, could be heard the power- 
ful voice of Mr. Rarx, shouting to the men to bear a hand 
with the mizzen-royal clew-lines. Though there were 
plenty of squalls throughout the night, the sky was per- 
fectly clear between them, and thickly studded with fine 
constellations, while the moon silvered the great wool- 
packs as they sailed serenely up out of the southeast. 
Quite a sea had made by eight bells this morning, in which 
we wallowed a good deal, but lost none of our way. Sea- 
birds have been very scarce lately, though a single large 
frigate-bird has sailed all day on motionless wing in wide 
circles overhead. 

I wonder how many perfectly well and healthy deep- 
water captains there are ? This sounds absurd at first, as it is 
the general opinion that sea-captains are always thoroughly 
hearty and strong. Of course some of them are, for long- 
voyage skippers not infrequently live to a very advanced 
age, proving that they must have always been sound men ; 
yet in most instances it will be found that they suffer from 
some malady brought about in their profession. Perhaps 
the most common is liver trouble in conjunction with dys- 
pepsia in some form. Captain Kingdon's death, it will be 
remembered, was caused by a cancer or abscess in the 
liver. Such complaints are due to an inactive life for 
months at a stretch, for captains, on account of their dig- 
nity, cannot take part in the working of a ship or in pump- 
ing her out, so that walking the poop must constitute all 
their exercise. Rheumatism, produced by bad food and 
exposure, divides the honors with the liver, while from 
heart-disease but comparatively few long-voyage captains 
are free. It generally develops in those of a nervous tem- 
perament, induced by worry in gales and dread of trouble 

90 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

with the crew if they are unruly, besides a score of reasons 
only understood by the initiated. Even in my very limited 
experience, I have known three master-mariners afflicted 
with cardiac disease. One, a splendid fellow, Coalfleet, 
of Hantsport, Nova Scotia, died in his bunk in the North 
Atlantic ; another, in the Ward Line service, was griev- 
ously stricken in Cuba, and had to retire from the sea ; 
while the third suffered from dreadful intermittent attacks 
of angina, but I have lost track of him for several years. 
Latitude, 3° 50' south ; longitude, 31° 35' west. 

June 9 

Late yesterday afternoon Captain Scruggs came up and 
said that Fernando de Noronha was visible to leeward from 
aloft, and that if we looked hard enough we might be able 
to see it from the deck. So we gazed long and earnestly 
over to the westward, and there, sure enough, arose a soft, 
rose-colored cloud through the mist ; and in another half- 
hour we could perceive the various islands which constitute 
this group, together with the lofty pyramidal rock one 
thousand feet above the sea, which crowns the loftiest of 
the islands, giving it a peculiar individuality, so that it is 
not possible to mistake this cluster for any other known 
group. We were near enough to count four distinct 
islands, the largest of them being twenty miles in circum- 
ference, and we could just make out the tremendous walls 
of sheer, unbroken rock falling into the sea ; but beyond 
this it was not given us to penetrate even with the strongest 
glasses on board. Would that we had been fifteen miles 
nearer, that we might have compared this group with 
Trinidad, which rears its desolate summit two thousand and 
twenty feet above the sea, fifteen degrees farther south. 
The spectacle of the surf breaking on Fernando de No- 
ronha must be even grander than on St. Paul's Rocks ; 

91 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

for, lying in the very heart of the strong southeast trade- 
wind, the full force of the mighty South Atlantic surge 
dashes ceaselessly against its basaltic walls. 

Last evening was very fine indeed, the wind having let go 
sufficiently to make the deck agreeable ; and as the moon 
shone with great power, it was a night of remarkable 
beauty even for the Tropics, although some ragged scud 
which blew swiftly across the moon presaged plenty of 
wind for to-day. The indications were fulfilled, for it has 
been very squally since early this morning ; all the royals 
came in at eleven o'clock, and we have been plunging 
along in a broken sea, through savage blasts which roar in 
the rigging with an angry voice. The most unfortunate 
thing is that the wind is heading us by hauling to the 
southward, and for the greater part of the past twenty-four 
hours we have been steering well to the westward of south- 
west ; so that, in spite of our weatherly position on the line, 
we are going to have trouble in getting past that portion of 
Brazil lying to the southward of San Roque. Indeed, at 
noon we were only seventy-five miles from the land, a little 
south of the Great Bugbear, as Maury pertinently styled 
the famous cape. 

For dinner to-day we had canned lobster, which came 
from the far-distant Cape of Good Hope ; at least, the skip- 
per called them lobsters, but the mate disgustedly muttered 
** Crawfish." This sort of thing the skipper cannot stand, 
as he considers it a crime for Mr. Goggins to know more 
than he does, and actually resents any information which 
the mate volunteers at table. He generally doesn't care 
to exhibit his knowledge in the skipper's presence, and it 
is hard to see why to-day he forgot himself in so unusual 
a manner. Yesterday, for instance, I remarked what a 
particularly hot day it was for the Trades, and the skipper 
promptly denied it on principle until furnished with ocular 

92 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

proof by thermometers, while the mate discreetly observed, 
' ' I feel like gettin' out me warmer coat. ' ' 

Mr. Goggins is occupied during the first watch every 
other night in teaching two of the men where the different 
ropes lead to on deck. One of these hapless individuals is 
Louis Eckers, who doesn't understand much English, and 
the other is John Pettersen, an immensely tall, lean Dane, 
who lives in such terror of the mate that he utterly loses 
his head at every command. He is, besides, pitifully 
anxious to please, and his awkwardness is really remark- 
able. If there happens to be a rope yarn in his path he is 
sure to trip on it, and when he starts to move in obedience 
to an order, he first stares all about as though just recover- 
ing consciousness, and then suddenly perceiving that the 
men are some distance off by this time, he laboriously gets 
his lank frame under way after heavily tripping over some 
object, and, with elbows squared and head bent low, he 
charges like a bull across the deck. Neither of these men 
has ever been aboard of a square-rigger before, and what 
little sense they have seems to vanish when anything 
is to be done. I'll never forget John's appearance last 
night as he clattered heavily forward toward the forecastle 
when the mate said ferociously, ' ' Show me the spanker- 
sheet. ' ' Poor fellow ! so rattled he knew not whither he 
was going. 

Speaking of ropes a moment ago reminds me of the 
largest one ever made in England. It was of white manila, 
weighed five tons, and was twenty-two inches in girth with a 
breaking strain of eighteen tons. This huge rope was made 
a short time ago for the express purpose of towing a float- 
ing dry-dock from the Tyne to Havana, which itself weighed 
six thousand tons. Seventy men were required to haul in 
the hawser and coil it away. Latitude 6° 1 8' south ; longi- 
tude, 33° 58' west. 

93 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

June io 

Oh, unhappy day ! Oh, joyless hour ! We could not 
weather South America after all ! Late yesterday afternoon 
when I had plotted the run off on our own chart, I sought 
the skipper and said to him, "Unless my chart is out, we're 
not more than forty miles off the land." "No," he an- 
swered, quietly ; ' ' we' re just thirty miles from the beach, 
and I'm going to wear ship at six." How bitter was his 
tone as he said this ! Bitter and calm with despair, for 
that which he said in jest three weeks ago has truly come 
to pass. Far back in the North Atlantic one morning, when 
we were not far enough to the eastward for that latitude, I 
asked the captain if he weren' t generally farther east than we 
were then. But he made light of it, trusting to his star of 
luck, as he jocosely answered, " Oh, well, maybe we'll have 
a chance to look at Brazil. ' ' Prophetic utterance. No one 
knows until he has ' ' been there' ' how it galls a skipper to 
be caught here, for it often puts two or three weeks on the 
length of a voyage. At any rate, when six o'clock came 
last evening we wore ship to a running and complicated 
accompaniment of boisterous profanity, and stood away 
east on the starboard tack. If the Trades were where the 
general average shows that they ought to be at this season, 
east-southeast instead of south-southeast as they are, we 
would have fetched by with two or three degrees to spare. 

The breeze was pretty strong when we turned in last 
night, and gave evidence of freshening considerably ; but 
no one looked for any such wind as we had this morning. 
We were awakened by the loud voice of Captain Scruggs, 
" Haul up the crojjick, Mr. Rarx," and five minutes after- 
wards, "Clew up the t'ga'nt-s'ls fore and aft," while a 
sudden headlong dive showed that something more than a 
strong breeze was blowing. Dressing was difficult, and 
when we finally emerged from the companion-way, behold 

94 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

the ocean almost white with breaking seas and a moderate 
gale whistling from south-southeast. The seas were short 
and we plunged heavily into them with an unpleasant jerk ; 
but it was a glorious sight to watch the billows as they 
came roaring at us, deep blue in the hollows and crested 
with hissing froth. We hadn't been more than half an 
hour on deck when the captain sung out, ' ' Haul down the 
maintop-mast stay-sail and clew up the main-sail," which 
meant that we were going to wear again and stand in 
shore. We were nearly in the wind on the other tack, and 
the second mate had just roared out, " Head-yards now," 
when crash ! a tall sea fell over the weather side and full 
upon the wee Chinese cook, the meekest, jolliest little fellow 
imaginable. He was standing outside of the galley door 
when that sea claimed him. It slammed him first against 
the main hatch ; washed him back into the scuppers ; then 
aft nearly to the cabin bulkhead, and finally sat him fiercely 
down by the pumps, during which evolutions the frail little 
fellow could be perceived shooting about in the surging 
waters, his long, black, thin pig-tail curling and writhing 
several feet behind him. After the water had partly 
run off, half burying the men on the lee foresheet, our 
little Chinaman lay very still, and we feared that he was 
badly hurt, though the men were roaring with laughter, 

while the skipper thundered ' ' Why in h don' t yer 

pick him up ?' ' to the mates, who stood as though petrified, 
gazing at a cask of sea-water bearing down on the cook 
which would have flattened him like one of his own pan- 
cakes. All at once he came to, however, saw the bar- 
rel almost on him, and skilfully rolled out of the way of it, 
escaping with some painful bruises on his arms. 

This was the only sea that boarded us, and we were soon 
straightened out on the old port tack, steering southwest, 
and doing scarcely four knots, for we were under short can- 

95 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

vas and the seas pounded us back, and even now we will 
hardly go free of the land ; for in spite of our twelve 
hours of easting during the night, a powerful northwest 
current has set us back to such an extent that our noon 
sight showed us that we were only ten miles farther off- 
shore than at the corresponding hour yesterday, and that 
we had made only thirty miles of southing. If the wind 
shifts only a point, though, we might be able to weather 
the land after all. 

Last night the mate and I had a conversation about fast 
passages, and he said to me, ' ' I can tell yer, there was 
plenty of smart ships thirty or forty years ago that yer 
never hear tell of nowadays. There's the Boston ship 
'Siren,' as I was mate of ; we were comin' around from 
Coquimbo, bound to Liverpool, when we were caught in a 
pampero off the river Plate. It come in a squall as usual, 
and the fust thing I know, there was the fore- and main- 
t' -gallant- masts over the side. We didn't have no spare 
spars aboard, but, in spite of that, we went from 3° south 
right into Liverpool in nineteen days. Pretty good for a 
lame duck, and considering the Doldrums, too. 

* ' Then there was a smart passage I heered tell of the 
other day about a modern ship, the British ship ' King 
George' ; she went from Cape Town up to the Delaware 
Capes in forty-seven days." # 

This last was really a fine performance, for the distance 
which she covered was six thousand eight hundred miles. 
Compare this passage with the voyages of sailing vessels 
to the westward across the North Atlantic in winter. 
They are nearly always fifty days coming across, and not 
infrequently seventy, or nearly a month longer than the 
' ' King George' ' was from South Africa, while the distance 
is less than half. 

In the Gulf of Mexico trade there is a wonderfully fast 

95 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

little fore-and-aft schooner called the " Margaret S. Smith," 
of Portland, Maine. This vessel ran on one occasion from 
Ruatan, Honduras, to Mobile in seventy-two hours, which 
was an hourly average of twelve and one-half knots ; and 
considering that the net tonnage of this schooner is only 
one hundred and twelve, her performance must be regarded 
as almost phenomenal. There are not very many large 
sailing ships in these days which can show a record of 
three hundred miles per diem for three consecutive days ; 
yet the ' ' Smith' ' is doubtless less than one hundred feet 
long. 

The other day I managed to get a large dollop of slush 
on a pair of thick trousers, and I asked the skipper if 
Sammie, the boy, couldn't get it out, thinking that he could 
do so with some soap and a little warm water. But lo ! 
fifteen minutes later I saw my trousers soaking away in a 
tub of water like a pair of dungaree breeches ! This, as I 
observed before, is the w^ay with seafaring people : when- 
ever there is aught amiss with a garment, pop it goes into 
the wash-tub. Latitude, 6° 49' south ; longitude, 33° 48' 
west. 

June ii 

"All hands wear ship ; all hands 'bout ship." These 
are the cries which ring constantly through the vessel now. 
Woful to tell, the Trades are still from the south-south- 
east, though the captain in some way has contrived to 
control his temper to a wonderful degree ; such unlooked- 
for and devilish a performance of the Trades is enough to 
finally ruin any skipper's chances of entrance into Heaven's 
Gate, or the Golden Gate either. 

Last evening at five o'clock we descried the land from 
aloft on the lee or starboard bow, and after supper it was 
very plain from the deck, so that at six we tacked and 
7 97 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

stood off shore again. At that time the sun had just sank 
behind the sandy wastes of the Brazilian coast, casting a 
deep crimson Hght over the sea ; while dead ahead, at the 
extremity of a profound curve in the coast-line. Point 
Pedras rose out of the ocean in a low headland, with a 
tremendous mass of gloomy cloud above it, lending to 
that part of the scene a sombre and awful aspect. Though 
the land did not show up sufficiently well to allow us to 
perceive any of its characteristics', it was plain enough to 
permit us to say that we distinctly saw the shore-line of this 
vast and torrid land. Point Pedras, it might be well to 
state, is not only the easternmost point of Brazil, but of the 
entire Western Hemisphere, being forty-five miles farther 
east than Cape San Roque. 

This afternoon we perceived a disturbance at the end of 
the fishing-line which is always towing astern, and it was 
presently seen that we had hooked a fine specimen of the 
sailor's dolphin, the most beautiful in coloring of all deep- 
water fish. I think that it might be as well to apply the 
name dolphin to this fish from now forward, if there 
should be occasion to mention one again. Of course it 
isn't a dolphin at all, but as sailors call it so, and this is 
supposed to be a book about sailors, this name is as good 
as any other. 

Carefully we coaxed him up beneath the counter and 
then tried to kill him by holding his mouth out of water, 
for he would have parted the line if we had attempted to 
haul him aboard. As he sheared about on the end of the 
line he presented a spectacle which was actually gorgeous, 
and, being immediately above him, our view was perfect. 
His motions were the very ideal of grace, and as he moved 
swiftly from side to side he exhibited in succession all of 
his wonderful hues, vivid greens and yellows merging into 
silver and Prussian blue. His antics were cut short, how- 

98 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

ever, by the arrival of the mate with the grains, which he 
skilfully drove into the creature's side (what a useless 
slaughter !), and he was hauled up over the stern. Then we 
stood by for the dying colors. Out upon them ! Not for 
a single instant can they compare with those of the fish in 
his natural condition, when, darting about a fathom or so 
beneath the surface, he positively enchants the eye with his 
brilliancy. He will yield us fresh food for supper, such as 
it is ; but all deep-sea fish are poor and dry, save one, the 
flying-fish, which, if served in a restaurant with tartare 
sauce, I'm sure could not be detected from a smelt. 

One often hears the discussion in shipping and yachting 
circles as to the seaworthiness of fore-and-aft schooners in 
comparison with square- riggers for deep-water work, and 
the question is often raised, " Which would make the faster 
passage to San Francisco from New York, the ship or the 
schooner ?' ' Naturally there are points in favor of each ; 
the advantage lying with the ship when off the wind in 
strong breezes, and with the schooner when by the wind. 
In the case of a voyage to, say, Hong-Kong, in the south- 
west monsoons, the ship would probably arrive at her des- 
tination ahead of the other, as there would be five thou- 
sand miles of hard westerly (fair) winds in the Southern 
Ocean, and another long stretch of free wind from the 
Straits of Sunda to Hong-Kong. On the other hand, in a 
westerly passage of Cape Horn, in which the vessel would 
be probably close-hauled for two or three weeks in the 
Southern Ocean, or perhaps more than a month, the 
schooner would have an immense advantage in being able 
to lie at least two points closer than the ship, if the wind 
allowed her to carry enough sail to go ahead. The wind is 
generally too heavy in the vicinity of Cape Horn, though, 
to allow a small vessel to show much canvas when close- 
hauled, and the passages of four schooners to San Fran- 
* 99 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

cisco found below indicate that in reality there is not much 
difference between the voyages of these schooners and the 
average of square-riggers. They were all Gloucester 
fishermen, and were sent out by Mr. Horatio Babson, of 
Boston, loaded with fishing supplies, rosin, pork, and hard- 
ware, between 1868 and 1873. 

Tons. Days. 

"Urania" 92 125 

"Varuna" 92 131 

" Laura M. Mangam" 85 131 

"Reunion" 90 148 

The average of these vessels was one hundred and thirty- 
four days, as against one hundred and forty-five for square- 
riggers ; so that whatever advantage they may have gained 
off Gape Horn and in the northeast Trades in the Pacific, 
they, doubtless, lost in the long stretches of southeast Trades 
on both sides of the continent. It must also be added that 
all the schooners sailed during the month of November, so as 
to reach Gape Horn in the middle of the southern summer. 
This fact seems to me to be a good answer to those ship- 
masters who are wont to assert that they would rather 
double Gape Horn in July than in January, — i.e.^ in winter 
than in summer, — saying that the gales are harder in the 
latter month than in June and July. But the fact that 
November was chosen for the schooners by a man who was 
no doubt familiar with the Southern Ocean would indicate 
that the weather there is better in January. 

To-day Mr. Rarx told me of a novel and very successful 
way of manning a vessel with what is known as a checker- 
board crew. Two forecastles are necessary, or one with a 
dividing bulkhead, all the men of one watch being white 
and the others black. If they were together in one fore- 
castle, violent hostilities would continuously prevail ; but if 
separated, they will work against and try to outdo each 

100 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

other ; so that, with a Httle judicious flattery or word of 
encouragement, such work as the making and shortening 
of sail, tacking and wearing, will be done with incredible 
alacrity. All- negro crews are held in esteem by some 
long-voyage skippers, but the men are said to be very un- 
ruly at sea, though fearless sailors ; while the singing on 
board of a ship manned by darkies, both chanties and 
otherwise, is said to be wonderfully good. Latitude, 7° 35' 
south ; longitude, 34° 20' west. 

June 12 

No abatement of the southerly wind. We thought this 
morning that the breeze was certainly going to haul to the 
eastward ; but the wind, though strong enough, yet hangs 
in the south-southeast, and we are, therefore, still hammer- 
ing away at it, tacking or wearing four times in each twenty- 
four hours, so that in four days we have made only ninety- 
eight miles of southing, a rate of nearly exactly a mile an 
hour. Apropos of which Rumps made quite an original re- 
mark last evening. For the full comprehension of the obser- 
vation it must be explained that if there is much wind and 
sea a ship will not make better than a seven-point course, — 
that is, with the wind at south she will do about west by 
south, or almost at a right angle. So the bosun remarked, 
' ' Well, here we are, walking up and down the avenue, 
eh?" It described what we were doing perfectly. 

This morning, while on the starboard tack, the skipper, 
who has now lost every vestige of the patience which he 
formerly exhibited, thought that at last the wind was going 
to shift to southeast at least, so he sung out to wear round ; 
but when we were snugged down on the port tack, we fell 
off to southwest half west, exactly as before. It seemed 
impossible that a human being could have shown such 
boundless rage as the captain did then. We could hear him 

lOI 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

muttering away at the farther side of the poop, ' ' What's the 
use ? No sort of use ; no sort of use at all. ' ' And then, in 
a frenzy of sudden wrath, he stamped lustily upon the deck 
and swore like the mouth of the pit, his wiry whiskers 
bristling as though electrified, as he fiercely wagged his 
head ; for he wot not that we were hard by. Then his 
eye wandered to the main-deck, and down the weather 
poop-ladder he clattered, looking for trouble, for we could 
hear him growling and mumbling at the galley door. 

In rough weather, instead of ordinary teacups we have 
large, fiat, china utensils, which look like shaving-mugs, so 
that at first I seemed to miss the brush. The mate, think- 
ing to have another go at merrie England, cried, triumph- 
antly, "I'll bet you had nothin' like them on the ' Manda- 
lore.' " But we quite shocked him with the information 
that on that good ship we were furnished not only with 
these useful pieces of crockery, but with some which held 
an imperial quart, from which we drank our soup in heavy 
weather as from Brobdingnagian teacups. Perhaps Mr. 
Goggins was never so absurd as to-day after dinner, when 
he confidentially called to me and said, ' ' Say, did yer hear 
the cap' n say ' pressperation' instead of ' perspiration' just 
now? There ain't no such a word, yer know"; this with 
an urbanity which would have floored a Chinaman, 

Mr. Rarx, too, sometimes favors us with some obser- 
vations entirely sui generis, and particularly droll in that 
he has a well-inflated opinion of his own choice of English. 
He was telling of a painful accident which happened to him 
several years ago, in which his back was wrenched ; ' ' and, 
sir," he concluded, " I didn't know what to do ; I couldn't 
stand, and I couldn't lay, and I couldn't set." We won- 
dered whether he were possessed of any sort of ornitho- 
logical accomplishments. 

In windy weather wearing stirs up a lively scene. This 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

is how it is done on the ' ' Higgins' ' : The skipper is pacing 
athwartships, undecided whether to hold on any longer or 
not ; then suddenly he stops, walks to the break of the 
poop, and says quietly to the mate, " See the braces clear 
for running, Mr. Goggins. " In five minutes or so the mate 
catches the captain's eye, and asks, " Are you ready, sir ?" 

"Am I ready, sir!" repeats the latter, who will have 
nothing suggested to him ; ' ' most certainly I am not 
ready ; don' t you see that squall to windward ?' ' 

The mate withers ; and when it has passed the idea of 
having to break tacks again seems to have festered in the 
skipper's mind, for he suddenly snaps out, "All hands 
wear ship," like a bunch of fire-crackers going off. " All 
h-a-n-d-s wear ship" roar the mates, running forward to 
rouse out the men, and aft they tumble and take up their 
positions at the various ropes. Then the skipper begins 
his harangue with voice of thunder and wind-mill arms : 
" Haul away on your main and crojjick buntlines and clew- 
garnets ; square the crojjick-yard ; you at the wheel, hard 
up yer helium. Weather main-braces now ; haul away, 
you blasted old women ; come in on those tops' 1-braces. 
Head-yards now ; let go the foretack ; foresheet now, all 
hands ; forebraces ; steady your wheel." The ship by 
this time has fallen off dead before the wind, and the old 
man is in the zenith of his passion, whirling back and forth 
across the poop, belching perfect volcanoes of profanity. 
" Main-braces again now ; overhaul those spilling-lines and 
that main lee inner buntline ; again your main-braces ; 

crojjick-tack, it ; look alive there and get that 

main-sheet aft ; lead it to the capstan ; heave ; in she comes, 
that's well. Main and crojjick bowlines now ; that's the 
style. Haul taut the weather- braces fore and aft, and clear 
up the decks." 

This oration is delivered in a hurricane voice to an 

103 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

accompaniment of roaring wind and flying spray, which 
sometimes enshrouds the whole forecastle like a snow- 
squall ; and the mates whiz about, driving the men before 
them, and they in turn rend the air with their cries as they 
come in on the braces. Each man seems to have an indi- 
vidual ejaculation when hauling away, only one man, of 
course, singing out at each rope ; but as there are often 
half a dozen knots of men at work, there are as many 
strange yells. Louis, the Frenchman, says, ' ' Ho-ho-ho- 
ho-ho-ho-ho," beginning very deep and ending in a fal- 
setto ; Broadhead, one of the youngest and smartest 
seamen in the ship, eases his mind with " Hoo-oop, come 
in with her ; oh, fiddle-strings ; oh, split the wind"; Olaf- 
sen cries, " Ha-joop, ha-joop" ; while Timothy Powers, the 
wild, carrot-topped Irishman, screams, "Yah ha-a-a-a, yah 
ha-a-a-a, ' ' like a freight train with the brakes on. 

Best of all, though, are the chanties ; and as the men 
know each other well by this time, there are plenty of 
them ; and good old songs they are, songs of the days of 
'49, into which the men throw heart and soul. Some of 
the best ones for hauling are, " Blow, my Bully Boys, 
Blow," "A Long Time Ago," and " A Poor Old Man," 
which latter two I believe that I mentioned before ; while 
some of the melodies sung to pumping ship are even 
better. One is " The Plains of Mexico," entirely in the 
minor, with a weird effect ; another, ' ' The Banks of the 
Sacramento," each verse of which ends, — 

" For there's plenty of gold, 
So I am told, 
On the banks of the Sacramento." 

Still another, ' ' The Girls of Dublin Town, ' ' is sung to the 
Southern tune of the ' ' Bonnie Blue Flag, ' ' the final words 
of each stanza being, — 

104 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

" Then it's hurrah, hurrah, 
For the girls of Dubberhn town ; 
Hurrah for the bonnie green flag, 
And the harp without a crown." 

"John Brown's Whiskey- Bottle's Empty on the Shelf" 
and " Give a Man Time to Roll a Man Down" are too well 
known to need comment. It is a fine sight to see eight 
muscular fellows at the pump-handles in the dusk of the 
evening, their broad backs standing forth against the dark 
recesses, rising and falling as they sing their favorite chor- 
uses, MacFoy of the port watch and Murphy of the star- 
board always supplying the solo parts. Latitude, 7° 56' 
south ; longitude, 30° 4' west, 

June 13 

Worse and worse ! The wind is more ahead than ever, 
and in the last twenty-four hours we made six thousand 
and eighty feet of southing, or precisely one sea-mile. 
Between yesterday noon and six in the evening we did 
make a few miles of latitude, for we tacked ship at the 
latter hour close to Cape St. Agostinho in 8° 40' south ; 
but after standing over on the starboard tack till one 
o'clock to-day, we went back again to the northward, and 
at mid-day the sun told us that we had made only one mile 
of latitude to the good. I thought that the captain in- 
tended to stand off shore this time for at least two hun- 
dred and fifty miles ; but when both watches had dined at 
one o'clock, we wore round again and once more stood in 
for the beach. What a pity it is that we can't make better 
use of this magnificent breeze, which is too strong for even 
a main-royal ! Free, eleven knots would be our speed 
now, instead of which we go diving hard into it jammed 
on the wind, pegging along at never more than six knots, 
four points off our course on the most favorable tack. 

105 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Last evening we were presented with a most exquisite 
panorama of the BraziHan coast. At noon we were imme- 
diately east of Pernambuco, about thirty-five miles off 
shore ; and, continuing on our southwesterly course, we 
brought the land aboard twenty-five miles south of that 
city at five o'clock. All that we could make out of the 
shore at that time was that it consisted of a succession of 
lofty hills ; and it was not until we came up from supper at 
six o'clock that we saw the land distinctly enough to ap- 
preciate aught of its beauty, lying as it did at that hour 
broad on the starboard beam and ahead. On the quarter 
appeared dimly the snow-white angular walls of a little 
town lying snugly on an arm of the sea, glowing warm 
and mellow in the rich light ; while by the aid of glasses 
we perceived, shrouded in the mists of a thundering surf, 
broad stretches of coral sand fringed at high-water mark 
with clusters of palmettos and cabbage-palms ; back of 
these, dancing and shimmering in heat-waves, rolled the 
sand-dunes ; and then came the series of lovely hills rising 
tier on tier into the interior, rich in that wonderfully luxu- 
riant vegetation that clothes the surface of equatorial Brazil, 
with the veils of night mist just beginning to form in the 
valleys and deep ravines. The whole of this fascinating 
scene lay steeped in the after-glow of a superb sunset, 
which touched everything with a reddish-golden tinge to 
be observed only in the tropics. 

Lying almost entirely within the torrid zone, the climate 
of Brazil is naturally a very hot one, and is also extremely 
humid, the rainfall for the year at Maranhao amounting to 
the enormous total of two hundred and eighty inches, or 
seven times greater than that of New York. Such an ex- 
cess of moisture has a corresponding effect upon its plant 
life, and has given Brazil a wealth of vegetation not excelled 
by any country of the world. Travellers assert that it is 

io6 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

utterly beyond description, and that in the ravines and 
passes near the coast, where the humidity is intense, it de- 
fies man's utmost efforts at restraint. Even as far south as 
Rio, trees spHt for pahngs send forth shoots and branches 
immediately ; and on the banks of the Amazon, the level 
of which mighty stream is yearly raised forty feet by the 
immense rainfall, the loftiest trees destroy each other by 
their proximity, and are literally bound together by rich 
vines and lianes. In the province of Maranhao, the grasses, 
roots, and other plants extending from the brinks of pools in 
time weave themselves into vegetable bridges, along which 
the traveller wends his way, unaware that he has left terra 
firma until he perceives the scaly jaws of an alligator pro- 
truding through the herbage before him. On all sides the 
vegetation is bewildering, and every representative of plant 
life is of a gigantic size. 

But to return to ourselves. Happening to glance ahead 
a little later we caught a glimpse of the great light-house 
on the extremity of Cape St. Agostinho just as its beacon 
flashed over the sea, sending its brilliant needles of light far 
out over the moon-ht ocean. Just at dusk a large coasting 
steamer came unexpectedly out from under the hills, in 
whose stern waved the green-and-gold flag of Brazil ; and, 
heading south across the wide wake of the moon, suddenly 
vanished in the gloom beyond the sombre headland. The 
light on Cape St. Agostinho, by the way, can compare 
favorably with our most powerful ones, for its rays are 
visible twenty-five miles at sea ; the tower being in the 
form of a white iron tripod one hundred and sixty feet 
high, whose apex is three hundred and sixty feet above 
the ocean. Indeed, on the whole of the South American 
seaboard, from the Guianas to Cape Horn, there is only 
one other light which equals it, and that is on Cape Frio, 
just to the eastward of Rio Janeiro. 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Speaking of Cape Horn, I wonder when we' re going to 
see that famous rock ? At this present rate we would be 
several months in beating down the coast ; if we were only 
as far south now as the Abrolhos Islands, we could begin 
to keep off a little, that being about the first point at which 
ships bound to the westward begin to think of bearing 
away. The old mate told us the other day that coming to 
the eastward towards New York this last time, they unbent 
the foresail and made some repairs to it on the main-deck 
with Cape Horn in sight ! This means that there was not 
enough sea there at the time to wet the decks, for a sail is 
never stretched there if there is any probability of water 
coming aboard. 

The sea has now returned to its usual Prussian blue, for, 
being on soundings yesterday afternoon, it changed to a 
most beautiful, pale, transparent green, owing to the white, 
sandy bottom over which we sailed, only twenty fathoms 
away ; our least distance from the land having been about 
eight miles. Latitude, 7° 57' south ; longitude, 32° 47' west. 

June 14 

Though the Trades are still from the south-southeast, 
we have done very well, as an ofifing of one hundred and 
thirty miles has enabled us to hold on to the port tack all 
day ; and as the coast-line south of Maceio trends slightly 
to the westward, we may be able to go free of the land 
until we reach the Abrolhoses, for which it will no doubt 
be necessary for us to make a slight hitch. We were 
more than seven days in making nine degrees of latitude ; 
for, a week ago last night, we passed the St. Paul's Rocks 
fifty-five miles north of the line, and yesterday we had 
not quite reached the eighth parallel. Can the reader 
duplicate this tortoise-like progression in the southeast 
trade-wind ? It is more like the Doldrums in spite of a 

108 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

spanking breeze. Sometimes when there is a lull in the 
wind the deep voice of Captain Scruggs will be heard, 
" Loose the main-royal" ; but five minutes later will come 
the order, " Let go the main-royal-halliards ; and you can 
put the gaskets on, Mr. Rarx, we won't want it any more." 
This word ' ' loose' ' is almost invariably used at sea, and 
you never hear "Set the mizzen-t'-gallant-s'l" or "Hoist 
the fore-sky-s'l" ; they are always "loosed." 

At dinner to-day the skipper said, "I'll bet they've 
been having trouble off the river Plate lately." "Why?" 
said L "Don't you see this swell a-heavin' up?" he 
replied ; ' ' they' ve been having a southerly buster down 
there." Now, that portion of the South Atlantic in the 
vicinity of that vast estuary, the Rio de la Plata, is subject 
to terrific gales of wind known as pamperos, because they 
blow off the pampas or plains of the Argentine ; but the 
skipper, having lived long on the coast of Australia, where 
the hardest gales are called southerly busters, usually gives 
that name to the pampero. 

The Rio de la Plata should never be called the Plat River, 
pronouncing it as we do the Platte River in Nebraska ; 
if the English form is used at all, it should be called 
Plate, which is so universal that one of the largest, if not the 
largest, shipping-houses doing business in South America is 
known as the Brazil and River Plate Steamship Company. 

A rather singular fact in connection with the skipper is 
that he has never been to any one of the three largest and 
most important ports between Cancer and Capricorn, — 
Calcutta, Bombay, or Rio Janeiro. This is really astonish- 
ing, as it would be hard indeed to find another American 
sailor brought up in the last generation who had never been 
to either Calcutta or Rio ; Bombay is more modern. Cap- 
tain Scruggs is quite interested in the Nicaraguan Canal 
project, and he insists that with its completion will pass 

109 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

away the sailing ship from the face of the waters, though I 
do not entirely agree in this theory. People also thought 
that when the Suez Canal was cut through it would kill the 
long- voyage trade to the East ; yet what are the facts ? It 
is probable that nearly double the number of sailing vessels 
pass Agulhas per year as pass Cape Horn, fully eight hun- 
dred rounding Africa in both directions in a twelvemonth. 
The amount of case oil alone from New York and Philadel- 
phia which goes East in sail bottoms is enormous. Few 
people, though, realize how much cheaper it is to ship 
goods from New York to either San Francisco or China in 
sailing vessels than by rail or steamer. For instance, the 
railway freights from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans 
averages about fifteen dollars per ton ; sailing ship rates, 
from Seven to eight dollars per ton, and often less. Eighty 
thousand cases of oil, which would be the cargo of a 
modern two-thousand net ton iron sailing vessel, are trans- 
ported to Shanghai around Good Hope for seventeen thou- 
sand dollars ; but if they were sent overland to San Fran- 
cisco from New York, and then by steamer to destination, 
the freight charges would be trebled, for they would 
amount to fifty thousand dollars. 

We have just finished reading aloud the book which 
contains perhaps the finest descriptions of tropical scenery in 
English, — Kingsley's ' ' Westward Ho. ' ' Nothing could be 
more charming than the picture of the delight of the 
scurvy-ridden fellow-voyagers of Amyas Leigh upon first 
landing in the West Indies ; while the description of a 
Barbadian sunrise is positively entrancing. Latitude, io° 
15' south ; longitude, 34° 35' west. 

June 15 

Another very excellent run was the result of yesterday's 
work, even though we could not steer a better course than 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

southwest, for we made not far from three degrees of lati- 
tude, finding at noon that Bahia bore west, distant one 
hundred and twenty miles, so that we are at the moment 
some distance off the land. Last night was one of the 
grandest that we ever remember at sea, A strong breeze 
whistled from the southeast at an angle of about forty-five 
degrees to the long southerly swell, making a rather con- 
fused sea in which we sheared about considerably, our 
high, powerful bows crushing the steep head seas which 
came rushing ceaselessly at us, piling up on either hand a 
hissing wall of foam and then flinging it far away on both 
bows, which, meeting the next on-rushing wave, and im- 
pinging one against the other, would shoot up to an aston- 
ishing height, to be driven back again in a perfect hurricane 
of spray, which drenched the forecastle- head, completely 
obliterating for the moment the lookout, who emerged 
from these showers like the shade of Neptune, with the 
water dripping from his oil-skins in the moonlight in glis- 
tening rivulets. The moon herself was full almost at the 
moment of rising, shining with so great an effulgence as to 
necessitate the partial closing of the eyelids if one looked 
at the disk, and casting a weird light upon the abysses of a 
heavy rain-squall crossing our stern. I don't know when 
we have enjoyed an evening as much as this one, lying at 
full length in deck-chairs, watching the mizzen-truck roll 
through the stars in tremendous arcs, and listening to the 
bursting of the seas against the bows and the hissing of 
the water as it rushed under the counter. There is but one 
word which describes it, — ideal. 

Has any one ever seen a keg of root-beer tapped in hot 
weather after it has been well shaken up ? Or has any one 
ever heard of a keg of root-beer at all. I have always 
thought of it in bottles. However, we have one on board, 
and if the expansive force of a superheated, wdl- agitated 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

barrel of root-beer can be appreciated, it will be understood 
that we had a very animated and sprightly thirty minutes 
this forenoon. Ever since the commencement of the 
voyage a beer-keg of this fluid has been churning and 
rattling away under one of the alley-ways which extend 
aft on either side of the cabin-house. For some time 
past the skipper has been cautioning us to save all the 
Apollinaris bottles, as he wanted to fill them, in cool 
weather, with the root-beer. But he grew impatient, 
and concluded to broach the keg this morning, after the 
contents had been well shaken up for a week in equatorial 
heat. Therefore he gathered round about him a phalanx 
of empty bottles, and, assisted by the second mate and the 
boy Sammie, advanced hardily against the passive " kag." 
After much ado, and the use of sundry expletives and the 
dripping of perspiration, they got it mounted on its side 
upon a low wooden box, wedged it, held a bottle under 
the spigot, turned the faucet, and stood by. But some- 
thing was wrong ; no liquor flowed, so that the spigot must 
have been plugged with something. ' ' Mr. Rarx, ' ' said 
the skipper, ' ' go and get a bit of stil5 wire. ' ' Back came 
the second mate at the end of a minute, during which Cap- 
tain Scruggs was engaged in impotently kicking and pound- 
ing the keg ; and when Mr. Rarx had brought the wire, he 
spent ten minutes jabbing away with it, eliciting with great 
force now and then a little jet of brown foam, which gener- 
ally hit him somewhere in the face, which he persisted in 
holding in front of the spigot. Tiring of this, which gave 
promise of lasting all day without bearing fruit, he despatched 
the carpenter for an auger, having finally reached the con- 
clusion that it was for lack of a vent that nothing would 
flow. The second mate was intrusted with its manipula- 
tion, and very confidently proceeded to bore a hole in the 
bung in the upper side. The wildest dream could not 

112 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

have pictured huger success. No sooner had the instru- 
ment pierced the wood than, with a hissing shriek, a 
column of dark hquid as big as a pencil shot high into the 
air like the spouting of a whale, breaking full against Mr. 
Rarx's head, after blowing the auger out of the hole. 
Then there were frantic shoutings for a plug, while the 
little cascade played merrily away, falling in a gentle 
shower of amber froth upon those who tried in vain to stay 
its impetuous flow. Finally it was plugged, and the skip- 
per called for a tumbler, that he might draw a glassful of 
the godly nectar, and, sipping it, gain courage for the bot- 
tling operation. But, oh, misery ! No sooner was the 
faucet turned than out shot a horizontal stream of root- 
beer as large as a garden-hose, and with such incredible 
force that the liquid was blown into a sticky foam a few 
inches from the spigot. Then there was a rush for uten- 
sils on every one's part but the skipper's, who stuck fear- 
lessly to his post in spite of the thick jet of mucilaginous 
steam, trying to turn the faucet with a monkey-wrench. 
During this exhibition my wife and I stood at the break of 
the poop, looking down upon the actors, and simply howl- 
ing at the old man, who, crouched low upon the deck, 
wrestled like a gladiator with the unruly ' ' kag' ' ; and 
when he finally emerged from his vapor-bath, with drip- 
ping beard and garments soaked to the skin, I feared that 
the second mate would die of apoplexy. However, most of 
the beer was saved, and we filled and corked away fully 
seventy-five bottles of the bubbling mixture. Latitude, 
12° 51' south ; longitude, 36° 2' west. 

June 16 

Most doleful to disclose, the Trades began to let go this 
morning, and at ten o'clock the sky-sails were set for the 
first time in several days, while at the present moment, the 
8 113 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

middle of the afternoon, we are doing wretchedly, even 
though we have come up to south-southwest. As for the 
day, it was really magnificent ; temperature of the air, 80° ; 
of the sea, 78°, while the breeze was of that singular mix- 
ture of vigor and balm so often observed in the southeast 
trade-wind. Not a cloud specked the deep cobalt of the 
heavens all day save some feathery mare's- tails near the 
zenith and a few clusters of pearly clouds on the south- 
eastern horizon. 

As usual, though, there was something to mar the se- 
renity of the day ; how many days are there without some 
untoward incident to cast its fell shadow ? In this case it 
was the temper of Captain Scruggs, who no sooner did he 
perceive that the wind was letting go than he at once began 
to blackguard the men and the weather in wild, lurid lan- 
guage. Perhaps he wanted to catch up with himself, for 
it must be chronicled that three days, actually three long 
days, seventy-two hours, have passed without his having 
consigned any one' s immortal parts to the fathomless pit ! 
Last evening my wife asked him if about 20° south wasn' t 
the average spot to lose the Trades ; this, in truth, is about 
the usual place at which the southeast winds vanish, but 
the disagreeable man glared at us for a few seconds and 
then snapped, ' ' How do I know ? You' re liable to lose 
'm anywhere," with an explosion on the final word. 

It is strange how he always tries to show that he knows 
just a little bit better than any one else ; if, for instance, I 
asked him if Montevideo wasn't in 34° 50' south, he would 
be certain to reply, "No ; 34° 55'," on which occasions 
the mate usually gazes in wonder at him, and then smiles 
gently at us, as though to say, " You see, you can't teach 
him." 

Ahead of us, distant from fifty to two hundred miles, lie 
a number of shoal spots, called the Royal Charlotte, David 

114 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Scott, Hotspur, Busbridge, Victoria, and Fly Banks. There 
are more than twenty fathoms on all of them, though, ex- 
cept on a certain unnamed shoal, thirty miles south-south- 
east of the Fly Bank, on which the ship " Professor Airy" 
struck in 1875. I wonder whether the water is discolored 
on these spots ? It would be rather strange to come sud- 
denly upon a stretch of green sea surrounded on all sides 
by water of the darkest blue. 

In a copy of Harper' s Rozind Table on board I found 
an amusing article called "A Yankee Skipper's Trick," 
which seemed good enough to transcribe, so here it is : "A 
good anecdote is told illustrating the superior enterprise of 
the Yankee skippers years ago. The New Bedford whalers 
left port for many a long voyage, sometimes to the far 
north, at other times to the far south. These intrepid fol- 
lowers of the sea sought and pursued the whale into the 
ice-clad latitudes about the poles with a natural fearless- 
ness. A squadron sent out by Russia to explore the south 
seas, and reach the pole if possible, had attained a degree 
of latitude which the commodore proudly told himself had 
never been reached before by white man or other human 
beings. While he reflected upon the fame which would 
surely embellish his name, his sailors cried, ' Land ho !' 
Oil to the south he descried a long, low-lying bit of land, 
and hastened to shape his course to reach it, there to plant 
the Russian standard on its highest point, claiming it in the 
name of His Majesty. 

' ' What was his disgust and astonishment when, as his 
vessel approached the shore, he observed, over a bit of 
headland, a flag fluttering from a mast-head. In a few 
minutes a little schooner poked her nose around the point 
and came sailing smartly over the waves towards his vessel. 
The lean, Yankee captain, who was standing in the rig- 
ging as the schooner came up in the wind, yelled, — 

1 15 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

" * Ahoy there ! What ship is that ?' 

" ' His Majesty's ship the .' 

"'Well, this is the "Nantucket" from Massachusetts. 
We're doing a little piloting in these latitudes, and if you 
want to run in the cove yonder, why, we'll pilot you in for 
a small charge.' 

"The commodore's disgust caused him to square his 
yards and shape his course to Russia." Latitude, i6° ii' 
south ; longitude, 37° 15' west. 

June 17 

I don' t expect that we will weather the Abrolhoses after 
all ; we might be able to scrape along, but that would be 
taking chances, which Captain Scruggs never does. The 
chief danger in holding on to this course would be that of 
drifting foul of the reefs which stud the ocean in the vicinity 
of these islands. Therefore at eight o'clock this evening 
we will go around on the other tack, and it is to be hoped 
that we' 11 do better than we did yesterday, with only ninety 
miles of latitude to our credit. This day was even finer 
than its predecessor, and we had some very grand cloud 
scenery, the eastern horizon being covered at five in the 
afternoon with great cirro-cumulus clouds in which we could 
perceive a number of bright luminous spots on the sea-line, 
called by sailors ' ' sun-dogs' ' ; being the bases of brilliant 
rainbows whose arches were concealed by the heavy clouds, 
producing a strange appearance. 

The carpenter is now engaged in hewing out a new 
maintop-gallant- yard, a slow but interesting piece of work. 
The old one is weak and may not withstand the heavy 
weather of Cape Horn, and the maintop-gallant-sail is a 
very important one. It is as well to observe here, that 
whenever anything carries away aboard of this ship it is 
never spliced and forced to do further duty, as is the case 

116 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

on many vessels ; the sheet, clew-Hne, or whatever has 
parted, is at once unrove, and a brand-new rope takes its 
place. The first illustration which we had of this was one 
morning in the Doldrums, when the maintop-gallant-stay- 
sail-halliards parted with a crack, and the half-dozen men 
on the end of it, among whom was myself, went down in a 
heap. Without a word a new piece of manila was rove in 
its place ; and the same thing happened to the spanker- 
sheet a few nights ago. Indeed, this is one of the distin- 
guishing marks of a Yankee ship. You will rarely find a 
piece of old running-gear aboard of a square-rigger flying 
the stars and stripes. 

Late yesterday afternoon we caught another dolphin, a 
small one, weighing about fifteen pounds. He showed 
none of the splendid blues of our first fish, though the 
yellows and greens were very fine. Indeed, this dolphin, 
as he was towed through the water under the counter, re- 
sembled nothing so much as a strip of gorgeous, glittering 
satin, particularly whenever, as the fish rose slightly above 
the surface, a glossy sheen irradiated his lithe, elegant 
body. And immediately afterward we captured a bonito, 
about as large as a bluefish. 

And now we have come to the first piece of inhumanity 
or gross cruelty of which either of us has been a witness on 
board. What we saw before was not much out of the way, 
except in regard to the bad language and the general at- 
mosphere of ' ' toughness' ' that pervaded the encounters ; 
but even they were nothing to speak of when the character 
of the mates on American sailing ships is taken into consid- 
eration. That which I saw this afternoon, though, went far 
beyond hazing, for it assumed the form of full-fledged bru- 
tality. I want to begin at the commencement, so as to 
bring the whole affair to light and allow the reader to judge 
for himself. 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

The actors in the Httle drama which just escaped being a 
tragedy were Mr. Rarx and the Finn, Karl Karlsen. This 
fellow is slow and thick-headed, with a very hazy idea of 
English, but is always one of the first to jump if he under- 
stands the order. He was told this afternoon at about 
three o''clock to overhaul a certain tackle, one block of 
which was belayed to a pin in the rail, while the second 
mate stood by, having in his hand another massive block 
of a threefold purchase. The captain was below asleep, 
and I was standing at the forward end of the poop, not 
twenty feet from Karl. Suddenly Mr. Rarx, who was in a 
very bad humor, as I could see, walked close up to Karl 
and picked up a small coil of rope from the deck, and yell- 
ing, "You ain't doin' that right, d you," made as 

though he were going to hit him. The man at once set 
about the job in another way ; but the second mate's tem- 
per was so ungovernable that he stepped up to Karl with an 
expression in his eyes which I never saw before in any 
man's, gave him a terrific kick with his "letter-carrier" 
boots, and as the luckless fellow swung round under the 
shock and impetus, Rarx drew back the ponderous block 
which he still held, and which must have weighed nearly 
fifteen pounds, and flung it full against the sailor's face. 
I could hear the thud distinctly, while with a sharp cry the 
big, powerful man reeled across the deck and would have 
fallen prone had it not been for the main fife-rail, against 
which he sunk gradually down, the blood pouring from a 
wide gash in his nose and forehead, and rapidly forming a 
little pond on the deck, while a crimson track stretched 
from where he crouched to the second mate, who stood 
over by the rail with the block raised above his head, as 
though challenging any other of the men hard by to take 
up the row. Half the watch saw the affair, and if looks 
could have annihilated him, Rarx would have dropped 

ii8 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

dead on the spot ; and I saw Broadhead and the French- 
man, who were putting an eye-splice into the end of a wire 
rope, flush crimson and bend hard over their work at this 
miserable act of cruelty. 

Meanwhile Karl remained where he fell, groaning, trying 
to stop the flow of blood which was rapidly saturating his 
clothes ; why the block didn't crack his head like a walnut 
will ever remain a mystery to me ; it would have broken 
the skull of any one but a Russian seaman. For some few 
minutes there was a dead silence for and aft ; then Rarx 
walked up to Karl, shook him heavily, and cried, " Now, 

then, get away out o' this, you ; fine mess 

you've made on the deck. Go wipe the blood out o' yer 
eyes, and bring a swab and get this out the deck, and don! t 
you be long about it, neither y It struck me that this was 
rather hard lines, having to mop up your own blood ; but 
in a few minutes more Karl recovered enough to totter for- 
ward, and when he next appeared he had a bucket of sand 
and water and a broom, and at the end of half an hour no 
trace of the assault remained save a large gloomy stain, 
which will have to wear out. 

Later in the evening I remarked to MacFoy that this 
was the most villanous and unprovoked piece of brutality 
that I ever imagined, and that it was astonishing that a 
man who appeared to be such a well-principled fellow as 
Rarx would do such a thing. "Well-principled, is it? 
Huh," was David's comment ; *' peaceable enough to you 
aft I guess, but you'd think different if you could see him 
dark nights on the main-deck wearin' ship. Did you ever 
see a Yankee second mate that wasn't a hound?" "I 
don't know very much about them personally," I an- 
swered, ' ' but they certainly have a hard name ; the only 
other American second mate whom I ever knew was on a 
foreign ship, where he had to treat the sailors like men." 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

"Oh," said MacFoy, "what do you think o' what you 
saw this afternoon ?" " Well, about the only thing any- 
body could say about it is that it was damnable," I an- 
swered. Here the bosun looked steadily at me and said, 
' ' If you' d seen what I have in these ships for four years 
you'd think no more o' that than steppin' on a cock- 
roach. ' ' 

At any rate, I'll never forget the scene at the instant 
before the block struck Karl's face : about half the watch 
in the rigging looking angrily down, the clumsy form of 
the Russian spinning round from the kick, and the second 
mate standing over him, red with anger, in the act of swing- 
ing the block well back to gather force for the blow. And 
this is what is known as " discipline" in Yankee deep- 
water men ! Well, my only comment is, thank God that 
my wife wasn't on deck to see it. Latitude, 17° 45' south ; 
longitude, 38° 5' west. 

June 18 

No one to-day made the least allusion to yesterday's sin- 
ister deed until this evening ; Mr. Rarx was as bland as 
usual, and after supper all that the skipper said was, ' ' They 
tell me the second mate had a little fun yesterday," This 
indifference served to corroborate the bosun's remark about 
what he had seen in Yankee ships I think that the skip- 
per wanted me to express my opinion and then he was 
going to tell me his in a loud voice before the men ; but I 
asked him if there wasn't a ship over to leeward, pointing 
abaft the beam ; it served the purpose very well, for he 
fetched up his lumbering, prehistoric telescope and passed 
five minutes or so in looking for a vessel which wasn' t there, 
so that he forgot all about Rarx and the Finn. 

To our great astonishment we were enabled by a little 
shift of wind to fetch by the Abrolhos Islands and to keep 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

on, as we were on the port tack. It was a matter of great 
satisfaction to us all, and it put the captain in quite a ra- 
diant humor. The wind has been pretty well from the 
eastward of late, and even if it hasn't been very strong, it 
enabled us for the first time in many days to round in the 
weather- braces and take advantage of what there v/as. 
Last night was exactly like the weather during a summer 
northeaster on the New England coast, one of those dis- 
agreeable spells which occur two or three times in July 
and August that fill the hearts of the hotel proprietors 
with dismay. A dense drizzle, increasing at times to heavy 
showers, prevailed throughout the night, accompanied by a 
mist which concealed everything one hundred yards away ; 
while at times we had short but severe puffs of wind, for 
which we had to stow the sky-sails. At g.30 in the even- 
ing a very strong breeze came out of the east ; and, in- 
creasing, the second mate, whose watch it was, went for- 
ward to haul down the jib-topsail. So he left us on the 
poop in a heavy shower, and in a few minutes we heard 
some sharp slatting, but paid no attention to it, supposing 
that the jib-topsail-sheet had got adrift. Presently Mr. 
Rarx came back breathing heavily, and remarked, * ' Very 
funny ; I don't see how that sail could go like that." 
"What's wrong?" I asked. "Wrong? Why, the main- 
top-gallant-stay-s'l's clean gone out the bolt- ropes, and in 
a minute we'll have the old man up here tellin' me 'twas 
my fault. ' ' 

Sure enough, in a few moments the captain's bushy face 
arose through the companion-way, and he said without pre- 
liminary, "I suppose that was the main-t'-gallant-stay-s'l 
that went, eh ?' ' 

"Yes, sir," answered Mr. Rarx, meekly, " I was " 

" I suppose you were going to say that you was about 
to haul it down ; well, you needn't bother to explain ; if 

121 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

you hadn't had it too flat 'twouldn't have went ; thirty 
years ago, men didn't sign as second mate till they knew 
how to trim a sail. ' ' 

The blighting sarcasm with which he said this put the 
second mate's temper on edge again, and I expect that 
he'll store this up against the skipper for possible future 
use, for he is unquestionably a fine sailor-man. 

It is rather remarkable that we- have caught no fish 
lately, as the sea in the vicinity of the Abrolhos Islands is 
the greatest fishing-ground on the whole Brazilian sea- 
board. For twenty-four hours now we have been on 
soundings with an average depth of forty fathoms ; and 
while the water is of a dirty green color, it is wonderfully 
phosphorescent, though not quite equalling the water on 
the equator ; still, when the patent log was hauled in last 
evening at eight o'clock (it hung up and down at that 
hour), the line was a rope of fire, dripping with silver 
sparks, and long after it had been coiled away over a pin 
it continued to emit brilliant flashes of phosphoric light. 

Our new main-topgallant- yard is coming along nicely. 
It is being trimmed down from one of the double top- 
gallant-yards which the ship used to carry ; this is a 
rather remarkable fact, that if a vessel carries double top- 
gallant-sails the yards will be larger in every way than if they 
were single. It would be hard to conceive a more gnome- 
like appearance than that presented by the carpenter to- 
day as he was hewing at the spar with an adze, seen from 
a distance of about one hundred feet ; nearer, the illusion 
vanished. But his tall, peaked felt hat, immensely broad 
face, open dungaree-jumper which refused to meet over his 
globular person, and short, fat legs, lent him, when he rested 
on his adze with wide-spread feet, a wonderfully elfin aspect. 

In a squall this morning I noticed that the mate wore 
for the first time a tremendously thick garment of red 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

cloth, which he called a llama coat, being made of the 
wool or hair of that quadruped. It looked something like 
a flannel shirt, but was not split up the sides, and seemed 
to be as thick as a felt slipper. Mr, Goggins says that he 
has never yet seen the rain which can penetrate it. Per- 
haps the most remarkable thing about it is the fact that he 
has worn it for fifteen years and intends to wear it fifteen 
more. How sailors hate oil-skins ! Their aversion to them 
is universal, and seems to be unreasonable. The captain, 
for instance, has several ancient, heavy suits which he calls 
his Cape Horn clothes. Whenever his presence is required 
for any length of time in a heavy rain, he dons one of these 
suits and goes on deck in a soft felt hat and a pair of 
slippers, only to return in fifteen or twenty minutes with 
dripping garments, his slippers sobbing at every step ; in 
two minutes, though, he is arrayed in another suit, with the 
same foot-gear, and marches on deck again to repeat this 
operation as long as his dry clothes hold out. All this for 
dislike of oil-skins and boots. Latitude, 19° 56' south ; 
longitude, 38° 15' west, 

June 19 

Rio is said to possess a superb climate in the winter 
months ; but if it is finer than the weather which we are 
having now it must be supernaturally beautiful. For 
twenty-four hours we have run before a fresh northeast 
breeze, the only fault to be found with which is the fact 
that, as we are now dead before the wind, the after-sails are 
the only ones which draw, blanketing the others. The 
course this morning was given to the quartermaster, south- 
west, which will not be altered except in case of necessity 
till we have passed the Falklands. No mention has been 
made, by the way, of our helmsmen, dignified by the name 
of quartermasters. They do not really hold this rank, as 

123 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

they are merely sailors who have been picked out by the 
mates as the best helmsmen, and receive no more wages 
than able seamen. The idea of this is to have only certain 
men to steer the ship, that they may thoroughly under- 
stand her under all circumstances. It is curious to see 
how much less tanned these men are than the others, 
owing to the protection of the wheel-house. 

The old mate continues to crawl growlingly about the 
decks, grumbling at various actual and phantasmagorical 
afiflictions. His mode of progression is a sort of creeping 
prowl, as he thrusts his face into every nook and cranny, 
with a hundred wrinkles in his great, flabby nose, as though 
he were continuously assailed with disagreeable odors. He 
hazes the men a great deal more than the second mate does, 
though I do not think that he is particularly courageous ; a 
flock of Gogginses might, like jackals, prove dangerous, 
but singly, his valor I'm sure would dwindle at close quar- 
ters. Being a poor seaman, the men have no respect at all 
for him, and in the presence of the skipper he bawls at the 
sailors and makes a feint of hitting them, glancing at the 
old man for approval, as he rolls about, exhorting them in 
his most rasping voice to " Come now, git a move on." 

Mr. Rarx gets several times more work out of his watch, 
for he knows how to handle the men ; and as he has re- 
covered his equanimity he continues to exhibit his claims to 
being a humorist. His men were hoisting the yards up 
taut in the second dog-watch yesterday, and when they 
came to the maintop-gallant-halliards, they burst into a fine 
chanty, ' ' Whiskey' ' ; then when they had finished with 
the main-yards they began on the foretop-gallant- halliards, 
but without a song. The yard seemed to stick a bit ; and 
as sailors can always do twice the work with the inspiration 
of a song, Mr. Rarx called out, ' ' Give us a little more of 
that whiskey, fellows' ' ; which so tickled the fellows' fancies 

124 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

that some of them shook in their extremity of mirth, though 
a sailor must always laugh at a mate's joke. If the second 
mate were not such a bad-tempered man he would not be 
an unpleasant companion, for he talks well and is always 
very neat ; but his recent villanous deed deprives his con- 
versation of most of its erstwhile attractions, while he ap- 
pears to think absolutely nothing of it. 

Louis Jacquin is indisputably the best sailor in the fore- 
castle, though young Broadhead, the New Yorker, is by no 
means a bad second. Louis's marlinspike seamanship is 
really beautiful ; and it turns out, as I expected, that he 
has served a long period in the French navy. Strange how 
sailors shift back and forth from man-of-war to merchant- 
man. This man has good principles, too ; for when the 
little bosun Rumps began to blackguard the skipper the 
other day, saying, "I'd like to have a crack at you ashore," 
looking up at the poop, the Frenchman said, ' ' Zat ees not 
right' ' ; nor was this intended for me to hear. Louis made 
a queer mistake the other day. He was telling Broadhead 
about the attractions of Paris, and finally asked him, ' ' Have 
you evair seen Pere la Chere?" "What's that?" said 
Broadhead. " Pere la Chere, zee cemetarie," answered 
Jacquin. It was an odd mistake for a Frenchman to 
make. 

The captain is in fine feather now that we are doing well, 
but is annoyed that we do not meet more steamers. I never 
saw a skipper so anxious to be spoken and reported as Cap- 
tain Scruggs ; and last evening when a large steamer passed 
us bound south, probably to Rio, he almost wept because it 
was dark. 

One of our two cabin cats has vanished ; it was the 
* ' coon-cat, ' ' and after a long search to-day we were forced 
to the belief that it has fallen overboard. It is hard luck, 
and its companion, the Maltese, is inconsolable. The cap- 

125 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

tain seems really cut up about it, for he has all a sailor's 
fancy for animalsi. One of Mr. Goggins's traits, however, 
is his cruelty to the poor, ugly alley-cat which belongs to 
him, — another illustration of the sort of creature that he is. 
Latitude, 22° 30' south ; longitude, 39° 25' west. 

June 20 

At nine o'clock this morning I sighted a vessel's upper 
canvas ahead, far down in the southwest ; she seemed to be 
a bark, and as such I reported her to the skipper. The 
breeze was from the eastward and blowing fresh, so that 
every sail was drawing to the utmost, and we were doing 
nearly eleven knots at the time. Slowly we drew up on 
the vessel, slowly but certainly, and at eleven o'clock she 
proved to be a ship, and we concluded that she was one of 
the Englishmen which sailed a week ahead of us : the 
"Balclutha," from London, the "Merioneth," from 
Swansea, and the "Peleus," from Hamburg, all bound to 
San Francisco, and the "Annesley," from Cardiff for 
Portland, Oregon. It was quite probable that we would 
fall in with each other hereabouts. In spite of the power 
of our glasses, however, it was impossible to tell for a long 
while whether she was a Yankee or a Britisher, until all at 
once she yawed, when the sun reflected from her sails 
showed that they were of cotton, so that the chances were 
in favor of her hailing from the States. We paid no fur- 
ther attention to her, though, till after dinner, when, by 
that time having raised her hull out of the water, we per- 
ceived that she carried a stunsail on the starboard side ! 
Here was a spectacle as unusual as a blue moon in these 
days of scanty rigs and short crews ! Still, in spite of her 
extra cloths, we overhauled her, and soon made the addi- 
tional discovery that, like ourselves, she crossed three sky- 
sail-yards. (What a graceful, slender look they give to a 

126 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

vessel !) Captain Scruggs at this instant emerged from 
the cabin with his ancient, feeble-looking, clattering, brass 
telescope under his arm, levelled it at the flying stranger, 
bracing the long, tottering tubes against the top-gallant- 
backstays, gazed at her for a full minute, and announced 
her name, — the "Judas Dowes. " Now, this vessel sailed 
from New York for San Diego six days before we did, and 
though she has a fine record as a fast sailer, lo ! we have 
overhauled her on the fortieth day. I am under the im- 
pression that Captains Scruggs and Piatt had a wager as to 
who would pass the equator first ; and as the ' ' Dowes' ' 
undoubtedly crossed ahead of us, our skipper was in quite 
a bad humor when he found who the stranger was. We 
asked him if he couldn't be mistaken, to which he disdain- 
fully answered, " Mistaken ? Of course not ; wasn't I mas- 
ter of her four years before I took the ' Hosea Higgins' ? " 
' * Does Piatt recognize us, do you suppose ?' ' I asked him 
then. "Most certainly he does, " testily replied the cap- 
tain ; ' ' who wouldn' t know them upper topsails ?' ' And 
in truth the ' ' Higgins' ' could be picked out among a score 
of other vessels simply by her long topmasts. There is 
every prospect of passing the " Judas Dowes" in the night, 
for at the moment, 4 p. m. , we cannot be more than seven 
or eight miles apart. 

Many people, even those identified with affairs nautical, 
will be surprised to learn that there are still fully half a 
dozen of our ships which make a regular practice of carry- 
ing stunsails whenever they will draw. Those vessels 
which I am certain follow this plan are the " Paul Revere," 
the "Judas Dowes," and the "Indiana." 

The sail which the ' ' Dowes' ' carried this afternoon prob- 
ably doesn't add half a knot to her speed ; but some of the 
ships mentioned carry such an extra spread of canvas as to 
very decidedly augment their sailing powers. For instance, 

127 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Mr. Rarx said, "While I was second mate of the 'Paul 
Revere' awhile ago, we had stuns' Is that added a thou- 
sand square yards to the ship's canvas and put two knots 
on her speed. ' ' Some seafaring people of the present day- 
do not believe that fifty years ago our famous clippers car- 
ried royal-stunsails, a leading maritime publication in New 
York saying a year ago, ' ' We never heard of a ship- 
master foolish enough to carry royal-stunsails." Now 
this is a mistake, for Mr. Goggins has positively asserted 
that about thirty years ago he was in a bark for some 
months that set these auxiliary sails, the vessel's name, 
according to the mate, being the * ' Chickloa, ' ' so called 
after a large coffee plantation in Guatemala. Far more 
conclusive proof, however, is to be found in ' ' Two Years 
before the Mast," in which Dana, always minutely accu- 
rate, mentioned the royal-stunsails set on the ship " Alert," 
in which he returned to Boston from California. 

Last evening at the pumps I had some interesting yarns 
from Murphy, who is a round, jolly, chubby individual, 
very active and good-natured. The second mate says that 
this fellow is not at all a bad lot, and that his only fault lies 
in his inclination to be a little "fresh." Murphy com- 
menced about the American bark "St. James," in which 
he went out from New York to Shanghai in ninety-seven 
days three years ago." " Oh, but she's just a daisy, she 
is ! Why, she's a square-rigged yacht. And go, I tell 
you honest, I saw her log fifteen knots on that voyage 
under the tops' Is and fores' 1 between Tristran d'Acunha 
and the Cape ; and if ever you want to sail with a nice 
man, you ship with Cap'n Banfield ; there's no better." 
As a matter of fact, the " St. James," which is a very large 
vessel to be bark-rigged, being of fifteen hundred tons, is 
the most yacht-like square-rigger under the stars and 
stripes, and a friend of mine who went out to Shanghai in 

128 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

her on this very voyage which Murphy mentioned, in 
speaking from a passenger's stand-point, corroborated 
every word of the sailor's, and said that it would be impos- 
sible to find a more agreeable man to sail with than Cap- 
tain Banfield, who for some time was in the large Boston 
schooner yacht ' ' Alert. 

In contradistinction to this fast passage of the ' ' St. 
James" friend Murphy spoke as follows : "The last time 
I went round the Horn was in the Yankee ship ' Centen- 
nial,' and we were a hundred and ninety-nine days from 
New York to 'Frisco. We had a terrible time off Cape 
Horn, and ran back twice to the Falklands for repairs, and 
at last a third time we bore away for Montevideo. We 
passed close to Stanley this time, too, but there was a'heavy 
gale on and we dasn't try for that place again. As we ran 
by, though, we saw an American ship tryin' to weather the 
Billy Rocks at the entrance to Stanley Harbor, and we 
passed so close to her that I heard the cap'n say as how 
he could see the sailors in the riggin' with the glasses. 
We afterward found out 'twas the ' City of Philadelphia.' " 
Then I remembered the tragedy of this ship. She sailed 
from Philadelphia for San Francisco a little over two years 
ago. Her captain had just bought her for himself, and she 
had on board a passenger travelling for his health. The 
vessel was disabled off Cape Horn, bore away for Stanley 
for repairs, missed stays off the harbor, struck on the 
terrible Billy Rocks in a gale of wind, and every soul on 
board perished. 

The last Yankee square-rigger to lay her bones upon the 
beach was the " Commodore," which ran on Maiden 
Island in the Pacific, in 5° south and 155° west, about a 
year ago, while on a voyage from Honolulu to New York 
with sugar. All hands saved. 

Murphy, like Louis, is a man-o' -war's man, and said that 
9 129 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

the last government vessel in which he served was the 
" Olympia." "Oh, Lord, she's a terror for work," he 
added. "I'll bet she can't beat this packet in that line," 
said one of the men. " She can't, eh? I'd just like to 
see you try her once. This ship's a playground compared 
to her." This, in part, bears out what Mr. Rarx said, 
that this is one of the hardest ships for work that he has 
ever seen. If sailors get enough to eat, though, by far 
the best way to run a ship is to keep them hard at work 
continuously ; they will always be in far better humor, and 
when they turn in they will think more about sleep than 
about imaginary grievances, which foremast hands are very 
prone to do. Latitude 25° 12' south ; longitude, 42° 14' 
west. 

June 21 

Oh, simple, childish Captain Piatt of the "Judas 
Dowes !" This morning when day broke we looked in 
vain for this vessel, for behold the watery expanse void of 
objects fashioned by the hand of man save ourselves. We 
had confidently expected to see the " Dowes" upon our 
quarter, where, in truth, she would have been if Captain 
Piatt hadn't shown the white feather, sheering off under 
cover of the darkness and secreting himself beyond the 
horizon. 

How odd it is to meet an acquaintance away down here 
near the end of Brazil ! The last time that we saw the 
"Judas Dowes" she lay on the opposite side of the pier 
from the ' ' Higgins, ' ' both ships having just come in from 
sea ; and lo ! we renew our intimacy far down here, thou- 
sands of miles from home, below the southern tropic. And 
a sort of mutual good-fellowship springs up between us, for 
are we both not going to fling down the gauntlet to the 
dreadful Horn in the darkness and gloom of midwinter ? 

130 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Everything- is so very smooth and sunny and cheerful here 
at present, that it is hard to beheve that there are, no 
doubt, at this moment, giant four-masters struggUng in the 
grip of an Antarctic sou'wester, hove to, with a tarpauHn in 
the after- rigging, or driving before it for their Hves, buried 
to the rails in those great Cape Horn surges which roll 
so grandly onward in their endless journey around the 
globe. 

Turning, then, from such violent scenes, it is doubly pleas- 
ant to be wafted thus along over a motionless sea, rippled 
by the fresh northeasterly breeze that blows us over two 
hundred miles of water every day. It is warm, too, for this 
latitude at this season, 77° at noon, for the sun to-day 
reached the most northerly point of his declination, and at 
four o'clock this morning, at Greenwich, he entered the 
constellation of Cancer, ushering in the first day of the 
southern winter. 

Our skipper has formed the very obnoxious habit of im- 
mersing beer and ApoUinaris bottles in the galvanized iron 
bucket which holds our drinking-water in the pantry, for 
the purpose of cooling them off ; so that we were shocked 
one day to observe several labels floating about in the 
water, having added to it glue and other equally unpleasant 
foreign substances. Fortunately, the weather will soon be 
cold now, which will, I hope, put an end to these objec- 
tionable proceedings. 

Every Sunday thus far Captain Scruggs has blossomed 
out in a white " biled" shirt, with a standing collar turned 
over in front, by reason of which he suffers torments 
throughout that day, until about three in the afternoon, 
when indications of a sudden metamorphosis begin to 
appear. First he begins to move restlessly in his chair, 
elevates and depresses his chin with great force, inserts his 
hand inside the band and tugs away at it, and finally, un- 

131 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

able to stand it any longer, off comes the offending collar 
with a great wrench, while he passionately nods and re- 
volves his massive head, to free himself of all restraint, as 
though he had been in a pillory. 

It is a curious fact that hardly a single ship-master will 
say anything in favor of Nelson ; personally, I have never 
yet met one who would admit that this greatest of sea- 
fighters was better or worse than any other naval com- 
mander, for all of whom they appear to have a silent dis- 
dain. A sea-captain usually takes as his model Napoleon 
or Caesar or even the present emperor of Germany ; our 
skipper reveres the memory of Napoleon and considers 
him the embodiment of everything grand and exalted ; as 
for Nelson, he won't even deign to talk about him, and 
brusquely dismissed the subject to-day by saying that Nel- 
son didn't even have much command or influence over his 
men ! 

There was a vast deal of shouting and confusion on 
board all day, occasioned by the shifting of the old sails to 
the new, strong suit for Cape Horn ; as the captain said, 
" Now we're gettin' ready for business." It is the general 
idea that old sails, nearly worn out, are bent for the bad 
weather, whereas the very newest of all are sent aloft, for 
old canvas would melt like wet paper in a really hard 
squall. Therefore the ship now glitters in a brand-new 
suit of clothes and presents quite a fine appearance ; a 
yachtsman, however, would contemplate with dismay sun- 
dry streaks of mildew and tar-stains on the main-sail, 
though this is the first time that it has ever been stretched 
on a yard. So long are our topmasts that the big, upper 
main-topsail has a double row of reef-points in it ; all the 
uppers are three times as deep as the lowers, which seem 
but strips of tape in comparison ; when this vessel has 
nothing set but the lower topsails, it must verily be a 

132 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

howling gale. Latitude, 27° 50' south ; longitude, 44° 
30' west. 

June 22 

Good-by, sweet north wind ! Farewell, bright, blue skies 
and balmy weather ! We turned out this morning to find 
the ship ploughing into a short, severe sea, heading south- 
southeast, with nothing set above the topsails and a strong 
wind whistling from southwest, or dead ahead. The 
change came last evening in the second dog-watch ; it was 
hard upon eight o'clock, and the mate was telling me 
something about the fit of the upper mizzentop-sail, when, 
looking ahead, he suddenly cried, "By jimminy, look at 
that cloud ; here comes the river Plate," and ran for- 
ward, bawling, ' ' Let go the sky-sail-halliards !' ' Looking 
quickly toward the southwest I beheld a very wonderful 
sight ; for, extending from west to east, about twenty de- 
grees above the horizon, was a strange, narrow band of 
black cloud which came rushing toward us at headlong 
speed, with a gray bank of mist beneath it extending to 
the horizon. This mass had apparently risen by the ex- 
ercise of some magic, for fifteen minutes previously there 
was not the least indication of it in the sky. Even as we 
looked, another ribbon of sable cloud formed at an angle of 
forty-five degrees to the first, and cornucopia-shaped 
(though not vertical like a tornado), with the big end 
toward us, came charging down upon us with all our kites 
aloft. 

The mate's yell brought the skipper on deck, who sang 
out instantly, " Get the sky-sails and royals in as quick as 
you can, Mr. Goggins. Keep her off there ; hard up." 
This last to the helmsman ; for in an instant our northerly 
breeze had been nipped off, and the wind was now from 
the west ; therefore, as the yards were squared, there was 

»33 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

a great thrashing about of new canvas. Nothing parted, 
though, and by 8. 30 we were pretty well straightened out, 
but were surprised an hour later to see the wind let go a 
good deal, while the ship came up to her course again, 
southwest. But the captain, glancing at a gray mist to 
windward, muttered, " There's dirt in that yet" ; and sure 
enough, at five this morning we had our first taste of nasty 
weather, and breakfasted in a severe squall which played 
tenpins with the dishes. Once more it eased up before 
dinner and we set the fore- and mizzentop-gallant-sails ; 
but while the skipper was enjoying his postprandial siesta, 
the second mate came below and, poking first his head and 
then his shoulders into the cabin in that peculiarly cautious 
manner of mates desiring to speak to the old man, aroused 
him with, ' ' There's too much wind coming for the t'-ga'nt- 
s'ls, sir"; to which the captain answered, "All right; tie 
'em up," jumping on deck, whither we followed him. It 
is remarkable how quickly sailors rouse themselves from 
insensibility to alert action ; only a moment previously the 
captain was breathing heavily in a deep sleep, yet no sooner 
did Mr. Rarx touch him and make the above observation 
than the answer came instantly, as though the skipper were 
talking in his sleep. 

The wind when we reached the deck was rapidly in- 
creasing and had knocked us of? to south again, with a 
bad, greasy look to windward, and it was raining heavily. 
The men were hauling on the lee maintop-gallant^clew- 
line and buntlines, while Mr. Rarx was settling away the 
halliards and swearing that never, since Noah took charge 
of the ark, was there a slower gang on a ship's deck, as 
he ordered four hands aloft to put the gaskets on the sail, 
the wind blowing their oil-skin jackets up over their heads 
as they trotted up the ratlines, exposing them to a hard 
drenching in the pelting rain. 

134 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

During the forenoon watch we sighted a sail, which was 
doubtless the "Judas Dowes" again. It is astonishing 
how enormously a slight elevation will add to the visibility 
of objects at sea. From the deck, for instance, this vessel 
was sunk to her royals, and at the moment it was utterly 
impossible to tell whether she was a ship or a bark ; but 
by mounting to the top of the wheel-house, only seven feet 
above the deck, all three of her upper topsails were in 
plain sight. 

We saw Louis Jacquin fly into a regular Frenchman's 
passion yesterday afternoon while shifting the sails. He 
was at the lee upper mizzen-topsail yard-arm, putting the 
finishing touches on some gear, when the second mate 
shouted up to him, * ' All ready to sheet home ?' ' To which 
he answered, "All ready, sair" ; evidently misunderstand- 
ing the question ; for no sooner did those below man the 
sheet on which Louis was seated than crack ! went that 
individual's black head against the under side of the yard, 
and he was then thrown off to leeward, only preventing 
himself from going over for good by a piece of wonderful 
agility. Oh, what a rage he was in ! He thought that 
Mr. Rarx did it intentionally, and the atmosphere smoked 
with foreign imprecations ; and even at that distance we 
could see his angry blue eyes (he has china-blue eyes and 
raven hair) snapping and popping away as he roared 
down, " Eh ! well, sair ; what fs zee mattair below? Do 
you want to heave me ovair side wiz your sheet ?' ' and it 
was several hours until he recovered his composure. 

Our new maintop-gallant-yard is all but finished and has 
been secured under the starboard rail till needed. A little 
remains still to be done to it, and these finishing touches 
the goblin carpenter insists on bestowing upon it in spite 
of the showers of spray ; and it is an amusing sight to 
watch him pop out of his shop, snip ofi a few shavings, work- 
US 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

ing like a demon for thirty or forty seconds, and then pop 
into his den again to avoid a sea. By reason of all this 
spray flying and damp weather, I have donned my Cape 
Horn red-leather slippers purchased from the slop-chest 
and said to be impervious to water. But they defy com- 
fort equally well, being as inflexible as Cape Horn itself, 
and are spangled inside with perfect little galaxies of 
wooden pegs, so that I fain would have boiled them as the 
pilgrim did his pease. If man were provided with hoofs 
instead of feet, it is conceivable that he might contrive to 
become accustomed to these slippers ; as it is, I cannot 
understand it. 

Having crossed the thirtieth parallel, we are now ' ' off' ' 
the river Plate in the sailor's sense, who always speaks 
of being of! the Plate when between 30° and 40° south. 
At least one gale is usually experienced before these ten 
degrees of latitude have been crossed, though ships gen- 
erally reach the thirty-fifth degree before anything hap- 
pens. Latitude, 30° 25' south ; longitude, 45° 33' west. 

June 23 

A pampero ! By heaven's thunder, we are battling in 
the vortex of one of these river Plate howlers, with a high, 
confused sea, and the ship plunging heavily into it, almost 
denuded of canvas ! Yesterday at 4. 30 a reef was tied in 
the foretop-sail, as the wind showed signs of rapidly fresh- 
ening ; but there was a lull from five until midnight, when 
it began to breeze up again, and when we went on deck at 
7.30 this morning, behold ! a strong gale coming out of the 
west-southwest and the ship, under a reefed maintop-sail 
and foresail, was pounding considerably in a very ugly 
sea, but not taking much green water aboard. By the 
way, when a ship is under an upper maintop-sail, it is, of 
course, to be understood that all three lower topsails 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

are set as well ; and a "reefed fore- and maintop-sails" 
means only the uppers, as the lowers are too narrow for 
reef-points. 

Wonderful to relate, there astern of us at daybreak was 
the redoubtable " Judas Dowes," with the same canvas set 
as ourselves. We knew her by her stunsail-boom, and 
she was apparently gaining on us and was making better 
weather of it than we were. I never heard the wind so 
shriek and roar in a ship's rigging as it did this morning, 
and it whipped the tops off the seas and sent them flying 
aboard in storms of whistling spray, which seemed to cut 
the face like powdered glass. It kept on breezing, too, 
and at 9. 30 the old man ordered another reef tied in the 
maintop-sail. Thus far the damage from wind or sea was 
limited to the injury of one man, Louis Jacquin, who was 
thrown across the forecastle-head against an anchor-fluke 
with great force, badly lacerating his left leg, and incapaci- 
tating him from other work than steering. And still the 
wind increased, and at half-past eleven the skipper esti- 
mated its velocity at fifty-five nautical miles an hour. At 
noon I started to go on deck to bring down a book which 
I had left in the wheel-house ; and, without stopping to put 
on oil-skins, I got into a leather jacket and went up out of 
the companion door. The captain was leaning against the 
lee side of the wheel-house, and I was about to join him, 
when he called out, "Hey, don't you see that sea, — 
jump !" I looked over my shoulder and beheld a huge 
hill of water rising higher and higher alongside, in that 
peculiar, lazy manner of very large waves. Still, trusting 
to my own judgment, I did not think that it would break 
aboard, when there was a crash like a broadside of artillery, 
relieving me of any further suspense, and I was swept com- 
pletely off my feet (and this on the poop), only saving 
myself from bringing to against the rail by a lucky clutch 

137 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

of the lazarette hatch-house. Then swash came the water 
back again, and I was once more half buried in the cold 
brine ; but, watching a chance, the skipper and I shot 
across to the companion door, opened it, and were assailed 
with the cry, "The cabin's flooded," which rang out above 
the gale. It was even so. The great sea had stove the 
forward skylight on the cabin-house, and had deluged the 
dining-room with hundreds of gallons of salt-water. It is 
impossible to conceive of such a wreck as we encountered 
below. The poor little gentle Malay was leaning against 
the table almost in tears, trying to keep his feet under him, 
while Sammie was doing noble work with a bucket, baling 
out the water which was swirling about with the rolling, to 
a clinking chorus of plates, cruets, thick glass tumblers (as 
indestructible as granite), knives, forks, and spoons, which 
had been swept off the table when the water broke full upon 
it. Ten minutes later our dinner would have been reposing 
on it ; and fancy the calamity in that event ! But it is too 
dreary to contemplate. Indeed, the dinner was delayed 
nearly an hour, and we had neither soup nor dessert, — the 
first occasion on which we ever knew these courses to be 
omitted at sea ; the weather must truly be violent when it 
so happens. But we had plenty of good scorching hot 
coffee ; and, it might be asked, why is it that during the 
heaviest weather at sea the coffee is always boiling, while 
in one's private house it is only after a protracted warfare 
with the cook that the coffee comes in at a higher tempera- 
ture than lukewarm ? 

Well, the wind kept on blowing still harder, and at two 
in the afternoon had attained the fury of a full-grown 
pampero. And the sea ! Oh, how it boiled and seethed 
like frothy cream ! And how the wind screamed aloft in 
the squalls ! Fortunately, they came at comparatively long 
intervals, with sunshine between ; but while one lasted it 

138 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

was nearly impossible to catch sight of a square yard of 
dark water, for the surface was as white as milk ; and the 
crests of the tall seas were fairly wrenched off and shot 
through the air with terrific force, the atmosphere being 
full of flying spoondrift which the toughest skin couldn't 
face, while the horizon was everywhere filled with ponder- 
ous, breaking seas. Our motion all day was very severe : 
first a heavy roll which dipped the lee rail under, while the 
water boiled up to the lee fore-dead-eyes ; then the awk- 
ward weather roll down the windward side of the sea ; and 
finally a deep, headlong dive into the valley, with a wall 
of water on either hand. The skipper thought that the 
average height of the larger seas was about forty feet from 
crest to trough, — not so large as the Cape Horn rollers ; 
but it must be borne in mind that this was a very quick, 
vicious sea, with not more than three hundred feet between 
the crests, so that solid water was bound to come aboard 
even on the poop. 

Well, well, it was a magnificent sight ; and as we are 
now accompanied by a cheerful flock of Cape pigeons, 
everything has a true Southern Ocean look. My wife was 
not in the least frightened during the day ; but she had 
such a good grounding on our first voyage that it is not 
astonishing. We made no departure in the twenty-four 
hours but two degrees of latitude, which was extremely 
good work, considering that we were by the wind in a 
pampero. Latitude, 32° 25' south ; longitude, 45° 33' 
west. 

June 24 

In the morning watch to-day the gale broke after blow- 
ing for twenty-four hours, the main-sail being set at four 
o'clock, during which process both mates were knocked 
down flat on the deck by an unexpected sea while they 

139 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

were standing by the main-hatch. At eight this morning 
the wind had moderated to a Hght, fitful breeze, and we 
wallowed all the forenoon in a high, broken sea ; indeed, 
throughout the night we could get but little sleep owing to 
the severe rolling. Glancing to leeward as soon as we ap- 
peared on deck, there was our old friend the ' ' Dowes' ' 
on our beam, distant a little more than a mile, bobbing 
about under her top-gallant-sails as we were, though she 
carried her cross-jack and we the spanker. She made, 
indeed, a fine picture as she forged sullenly ahead, showing 
a glistening sheath of copper as she divided the slopes of 
the larger seas, with a glint of brass from the poop when 
the sun peered out from between light showers. At nine 
o' clock we perceived several agitated figures close to her 
wheel, and presently a string of flags blew out and were run 
up to her gafi-end, and quite a little conversation ensued. 
The first signal which Piatt made was DWV, signifying 
" How are you ?" This we answered with BRC, which is 
to say, "All well." Then followed in rapid succession, 
"When did you sail?" "When did you pass the equa- 
tor?" " A pleasant voyage," to all of which we replied 
with the various flag combinations which spelled the words ; 
each then dipped the ensign three times, and the interview 
was brought to a close. It was very interesting thus con- 
versing with the sly wretch, and it is singular how much 
interest foremast hands always take in such proceedings, 
carefully following every shift of flag, some of the older 
sailors always professing to be able to read the signals, 
often telling their messmates the most absurd things, which 
they implicitly believe. 

I never saw so great a change in any one as came over 
Captain Scruggs yesterday during the gale. He was as 
quiet and retiring as the most bashful of individuals, and in 
fact exhibited an amount of anxiety surprising in so aggres- 

140 



BY WAY OP^ CAPE HORN 

sive and domineering a person. Nearly all masters of sail- 
ing ships, as noted before, are nervous in bad weather ; 
and in truth, a gale of wind at sea is something to make 
one quiet and mindful of man's trivial strength when meas- 
ured against the mighty powers of nature. But the captain 
was unnaturally reserved and almost crushed, and asked me 
half a dozen times what I thought of it ; while at 2.30 in 
the afternoon, standing on the weather side of the wheel- 
house, he put his face close to my ear and shouted, "It's 
blowing harder than ever," with a rising inflection, as 
though awaiting my inexperienced opinion. This morning, 
however, he was his same old self again, drenching Sammie 
with heavy showers of profanity on the least provocation. 
In spite of his depression yesterday, the skipper gave vent 
to one of his quaint sayings. At the time he had on a 
cap, which, though not tied under his chin, resisted the 
utmost violence of the squalls ; on commenting upon this 
to him, he cried, "They're great things; you ought to 
have one ; 'twould stop on as long as your pants." 

Some of the sailors are beginning to grumble even so 
soon as this. I had a talk with old Kelly this afternoon at 
the pumps and in a low voice he let fall his opinions on 
various subjects. Now, this man has been well educated 
and talks evenly, without effort, and the inflections and tone 
of his voice indicate that by birth his natural sphere in 
life is a good deal higher than that of a common sailor. 
"Well," he remarked. "I've been in square-riggers for 
thirty-three years now, but I never did see one like this for 
yelling and cursing ; why, they knock all the sense out of a 
man's head the way they shout. And work, you talk 
about galleys, but there never was a gang of slaves driven 
as we are." This must be taken with the usual amount of 
salt, which should always be liberally sprinkled over the 
conversation of the average sailor ; still, when a second 

141 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

mate acknowledges that the men are hard pushed, there is 
not much doubt about its being true. Kelly is right, though, 
about the shouting of Captain Scruggs ; if there wasn't so 
much sea-room I believe that we would all be deafened by 
this time ; and the worst part of it is that this sort of thing 
is. absolutely useless. I have frequently known the skipper 
to work the men into such a state that they were paralyzed 
and unable to execute the simplest order. 

At the present moment, sitting in the cabin, we can hear 
the wind beginning to sing again in the rigging, and a 
second gale would not surprise us in the least, for there is, 
in addition, a heavy swell rolling up from the southwest, all 
of which cannot be the result of our late gale. 

This roaring of the wind aloft when it is blowing very 
hard is resolvable into several different tones : the heavy 
shrouds taking the base, the somewhat lighter backstays 
resembling the barytone, the halliards and braces standing 
for the tenor, while the buntlines and clew-lines take the 
part of a piercing falsetto, as shrill as a thousand piccolos ; 
the whole blending into a resonant chorus of orchestral 
power, with grand, majestic crescendi like the double open 
diapason of a cathedral organ. Latitude 32° 35' south ; 
longitude, 44° 50' west. 

June 25 

The question which agitates us at this moment is, are we 
going to have another pampero ? for it is breezing up fast 
from west-southwest, the same old quarter. We didn't 
have much wind this forenoon, but by dinner-time it fresh- 
ened so that at one o' clock the skipper said to the mate in 
tones of despair, ' ' Get that upper mizzentop-sail in, Mr. 
Goggins' ' ; and no sooner were the men down on deck 
again than came the order, ' ' Reef the f oretop-sail. ' ' All 
hands were on deck, and the foreshrouds were instantly 

142 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

filled with the yellow figures scurrying aloft, and in half an 
hour the ship was once more under snug canvas. 

At four yesterday afternoon, chancing to look under the 
foot of the main-sail, my wife and I saw a large four-masted 
bark under top-gallant-sails bound north and steering in 
such a way as to pass within easy signalling distance ; and 
the skipper lost no time in appearing on deck in answer to 
a summons, at once ordering the ship's number to be 
made. On came the stranger, and in a few minutes we 
could see that she had lost her mizzen-royal, yard, mast, 
and everything. She was a very ugly vessel, narrow and 
dingy, built of wood, with a curious stern like nothing we 
had ever seen before, and no more apparent sheer than a 
billiard-table. Very soon she was abreast of us, but no 
answering flags fluttered from her gaf5, and we wondered 
what manner of ship this was thus to ignore signals. We 
thought that she was going to pass us by completely un- 
noticed, when there crawled feebly to her spanker-gaff the 
green, white, and red banner of Italy. The meaning of 
this manoeuvre was that this ill-starred old ship, which was 
evidently an ancient steamer, was totally destitute of flags 
bar her national ensign ; and, having no signals, she would, 
of course, possess no code-book, and therefore our number, 
standing out stiffly a hundred feet from the deck, would be 
quite unintelligible to her. 

No sooner was this ship hull down astern than another 
one arose ahead. We were below at the time, and when 
we reached the deck we were almost abreast of each other. 
Our name was still flying from the signal-halliards, while 
the other had hoisted FGH, meaning "What is your 
longitude ?' ' We gratified her wish and she doubtless got 
our name all right, but refused to tell us hers ; but, dipping 
her ensign, went surging heavily along on her homeward- 
bound course. A long time passed before we could make 

143 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

out what her ensign was, for it was a flag seldom seen on 
the ocean highways, and the mate had the honor of being 
the first to distinguish it. It was the flag of Chile : a broad 
horizontal band of red below, the upper half being divided 
into two squares, white and blue, with a large white star in 
the upper left-hand corner. She, too, was a wooden ship, 
but not so villanous-looking as the Italian, and carried 
double top-gallant-sails on the fore and main. We all hope 
that she'll report us, for we have sailed through thirty-six 
degrees of latitude without having sighted any vessel which 
would be likely to report us on arrival. How happy our 
relatives and friends will be when they see our report in the 
ship-news columns by that steamer just north of the line, 
" Spoken, ship ' Hosea Higgins. ' Scruggs, New York for 
San Francisco, June 6. Latitude, 2° north ; longitude, 
28° west!" 

. To-day at noon we were almost exactly in the latitude of 
Cape Agulhas, so that the Horn is thirteen hundred miles 
south of the southernmost extremity of the Eastern Hemi- 
sphere, a difference of latitude greater than that which 
separates Halifax and Key West, or New York and Ha- 
vana. Latitude, 34° 46' south ; longitude, 45° 20' west. 

June 26 

At quarter to five yesterday the skipper, thinking that 
we would do better on the other tack, wore ship at that 
hour in half a gale of wind. There was a deal of excite- 
ment and bad language on the captain's part, which so 
rattled the helmsman that we were thirty-five minutes in 
wearing, about eighteen or twenty minutes being our aver- 
age. There was a heavy sea running at the time, too, and 
in spite of cautions my wife insisted upon sitting on top of 
the after-cabin skylight during the process of wearing, and 
when we began to roll heavily when before the wind and 

144 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

sea, the expected happened ; for my wife fetched away and 
would have had a very severe fall if the captain hadn't 
grasped her tightly and held on. I tried to reach her in 
time, but lost my foothold, sat down vehemently, shot 
straightaway across the smooth deck-house with incredible 
speed, and brought to with a smash against the deck-house 
monkey-rail. I kept astonishingly cool in the flight across, 
and even selected where to put my feet when I should 
reach the rail ; indeed, it was an illustration of the theory 
that if a man is not paralyzed with horror at some frightful 
spectacle the presence of danger sharpens his wits, and 
his mind becomes clear and calculating. Immediately after 
wearing, the captain ordered t4ie main-sail reefed, and at 
eight in the evening a single reef was tied in the maintop- 
sail, the weather being very squally, with much rain and 
hail. 

To-day dawned with a light west-southwest wind and a 
clear sky, with a long, southerly swell which made us roll 
dreadfully all night. At nine o'clock we broke ofT to the 
southward of northwest ; so the captain wore round once 
more, and now we are making south by west half west. 
Skippers have an odd way sometimes of saying south by 
west, accenting strongly the ' ' by' ' as a precaution against 
mistaking the course for south-southwest, if slurred over 
quickly. 

We thought that we had finished with the ' ' Judas 
Dowes," but no ; this morning at dawn she was in plain 
view, five miles astern, and overhauled us so rapidly that 
when we went on the other tack she had neared us to three 
miles. No sooner had she observed us in the act of 
wearing than up went her main-sail and cross-jack, and 
she followed suit ; there is no gainsaying the fact that the 
" Dowes" is the faster ship on a wind, though free things 
are reversed. By standing so long on the starboard tack 
10 145 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

through Wednesday's gale and some heavy winds since 
we found, when braced up on the port tack last night, that 
the cargo had shifted slightly, and that on this leg the ship 
had a tendency to roll to windward. The captain said that 
the cargo hadn't actually shifted, but had listed, as sailors 
call it, the effect on the ship being perceptible to no one 
but a seaman. 

Mr. Rarx told me the other day that he spent two 
years on the West African coast, between Sierra Leone and 
Lagos, aboard of an English supply steamer ; and that 
while there he saw what, in his estimation, was the loftiest- 
rigged vessel that ever floated. * ' You can talk about your 
talkabouts, ' ' said he, ' ' but that English man-o' -war had 
four yards above her main-royal. I'm tellin' you a fact," 
he added. 

Well, we are dawdling away day after day up here in 
about 35° south instead of clipping down past the Plate 
the other side of 40°. The captain says that after we have 
passed that parallel until we reach 50° south we will prob- 
ably have a number of fine days, clear and exhilarating, 
with magnificent sunsets. We have had some good views 
of the Magellan Clouds lately, as the sky at night in the 
south has been quite clear. They are strange-looking 
things, with somewhat the appearance of the nebula in 
Andromeda. Latitude, 34° 39' south ; longitude, 46° 26' 
west. 

June 27 

Very strong west to west-southwest winds, and the ves- 
sel laboring in a broken sea in corkscrew dives under single- 
reefed fore- and maintop-sail. It was fine up to midnight, 
when it clouded over and commenced to blow, so that we 
had to shorten sail ; and at eight this morning, the ship 
diving deeply, the upper mizzentop-sail was stowed alto- 

146 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

gether. The ' ' Dowes' ' made a valiant attempt to hold on 
to us ; but I think that we can carry on better in heavy- 
winds, for when day broke she had vanished astern. 

Last evening at the pumps Olsen and I talked together 
for the first time. He is a very decent fellow and the 
quietest man in the ship. " I never did see anythin' like 
the shoutin' here," he observed, the first thing. "Oh, 
blow that," quoth Murphy ; "it goes in one ear and out 
the other. " "That's all right," answered Olsen, " but I 
ain't used to it ; and every time the old man hollers me 
heart's in me mouth. If I ever sign in an American ship 
again it'll be the ' S. P. Hitchcock.' When me and Cole- 
man come round from Honolulu in her little while ago, we 
did more work in one watch there than we do here all day, 
and there wasn't any yellin' at all. You never saw Cap'n 
Gates on the main-deck neither ; he knew his business. 
On the whole, I like British vessels about the best of any, 
except the way they carry on is fearful, and bein' iron 
ships they can stand it. I sailed in the British ship 
' Dominion' once from Barry to San Francisco, and I 
never did see such sail-carryin'. As for the main-deck, you 
couldn't put your foot on it in bad weather without fear 
of goin' overboard. One night in the Pacific, about 45° 
south, in a southerly gale, there came a crack, and away 
went all three t' -gallant-masts overboard, all from carryin' 
on." 

Olsen' s remark about Captain Gates's knowing his busi- 
ness was a cut at Captain Scruggs for prowling around the 
deck forward at all hours of the day and night. Sailors 
hate this ; and while a ship-master has the right to scour 
his vessel fore and aft if he sees fit, he is generally never 
seen forward of the galley, unless something special has 
happened. 

After dinner to-day, when we went up on the poop, we 

147 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

found that both wind and sea had increased, but there was 
nothing to warn us of what was to happen. We had ar- 
ranged the folding-chairs against the wheel-house, shel- 
tered from the violence of the wind by the bulwarks, and I 
was in the act of arranging a rug around my wife, when the 
skipper cried out, " Now, then, mind yourself !" We felt 
the ship rising higher and higher on an unusually heavy sea, 
and, looking forward, were just in time to see a great, white 
cataract roar over the weather-side abaft the main-rigging. 
Half of it tumbled into the waist, while the other half broke 
with a stunning crash full against the forward end of the 
poop-deck-house. It wrenched away a heavy wooden 
shutter, built to repel just such an attack as this, snapping 
a thick brass hook as if it had been of glass, washed away a 
short, massive ladder leading to the top of the deck-house, 
and then bore down upon us like a freshet. Captain Scruggs 
again came to the rescue, and, picking my wife up, chair 
and all, held her clear of the flood ; while the only thing 
for me to do, seeing that my wife was safe, was to fall 
across one of the stern-bitts hard by and lift my legs out 
of the water as I best could ; and here I remained for two 
minutes, floundering and wallowing about as though on a 
pivot, and this just after an especially hearty dinner. When 
most of the water had run off, the skipper placed my wife's 
chair on the deck again with such dexterous cunning as to 
disengage the supporting-bar in the rear, letting the whole 
contrivance down flat, so that my wife lay prone upon the 
deck in the chill sea-water, which still swirled about our 
feet. It didn't seem to disturb him much, and he only re- 
marked, as he stamped on the deck, squirting little jets of 
water out of his Cape Horn slippers, " There, that's more 
water than I've seen on this ship's poop since I've had 
her. ' ' It was really a grand spectacle as the sea broke on 
board, and would have made a superb subject for a camera. 

148 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

We are now in the very heart of the violent river 
Plate region, being at noon to-day abreast of that vast 
estuary, whose mouth is three degrees in width. The Rio 
de la Plata, or River of Silver, is, like Cape Hatteras, the 
dividing line between two climates : that of the torrid Bra- 
zils and of the cold, bleak pampas of the Argentine and 
Patagonia, just as Hatteras is the turning-point, so to speak, 
in the climates of our Southern and Middle Atlantic States. 
They are, too, about equidistant from the equator. A 
rather noteworthy fact is that, bar Cape Horn, the three 
stormiest localities in the Southern Hemisphere are almost 
exactly in the same latitude, though thousands of miles 
apart : the river Plate, Cape Agulhas, and Cape Leewin, 
at the southwestern end of Australia. Latitude, 36° 55' 
south ; longitude, 47° 20' west. 

June 28 

By way of variety, light winds were vouchsafed to us for 
the twenty-four hours, varying from southwest to north- 
east, and we made not fifty miles of southing in that time. 
Very suddenly last night at nine o'clock the wind let go at 
southwest, and instantly came out of the southeast, back- 
ing gradually to northeast, where it is now ; but though a 
fair wind we are not doing three knots an hour. However, 
the glass is falling and a change is no doubt at hand, and 
the sea has gone down till nothing remains but a sullen, 
greasy roll from south-southeast. We earnestly hope for 
a strong, fair wind which will give us at least eight knots, 
for the skipper's temper is failing rapidly, and he is begin- 
ning to rage at the weather. Generally, by the fiftieth day 
from New York he has crossed the parallel of 50° south, so 
that in round numbers we are about seven hundred miles 
north of his average, this being our forty-eighth day at sea. 
It has been noted previously, I think, that he has never 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

been more than one hundred and thirty days on a voyage, 
and has made eight voyages between New York and San 
Francisco in less than one hundred days ; his longest pas- 
sage of the Horn — that is, from 50° to 50° — was nineteen 
days ; the shortest, eleven. Fine work, all this, which few 
ship-masters can equal. 

My wife asked the skipper, last evening if he had ever 
lost a ship. He said no, but that he had had one or two 
narrow calls. * ' One of the worst cases of smash-up I ever 
saw," he continued, "happened to me when I had the 
' Judas Dawes' about six years ago. We were well down 
in the southeast Trades in the Pacific, bound from ' Frisco to 
New York ; the weather had been squally, and on this par- 
ticular day, in about 14° south, I had specially told the mate 
not to loose the jib-topsail, but when I went below after 
dinner for a nap the beggar did it. When I went on deck 
again at four there was a squall makin' ahead, and I ordered 
some hands to stand by the sky-sail-halliards, for I didn't 
know the jib-topsail had been loosed. Well, sir, the squall 
hit us (it was a corker) and snapped ofT the jib-boom ; 
and, as I ran forrad, crack went the foretop-mast, then 
the maint' -gallant-mast, and at last over went the mizzen- 
t' -gallant- mast. In all my goin' to sea I never saw the like 
of it ; 'twas as bad nearly as the ' May Flint,' only we had 
smooth water. Forrad we were a wreck, with nothing at 
all above the foreyard, while alongside was a fearful mass 
o' gear slammin' against the ship, and you know those 
Trades in the Pacific blow fresh. Well, we cleared up the 
wreck after hard work, sent up a few of the old yards that 
weren't too far gone to fish, made sail, and crossed Sandy 
Hook Bar, ninety-eight days from 'Frisco, under a jury- 
rig." Captain Scruggs has as great a reputation for fast 
passages as any living American ship-master in the Cali- 
fornia trade, but we'll have to have better luck if we are to 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

reach port in less than one hundred and thirty days from 
New York. 

We are entering that region most celebrated in the world 
for its sunsets ; it would be interesting to know whether 
there is anything in this, or whether it is imagination on 
the part of captains. At any rate, we witnessed one this 
evening finer than any which we have ever seen before ; 
the sun sinking into the core of a huge, crimson cavern in 
the centre of an inky cloud, from behind which shot up 
scores of slender, golden arrows toward the zenith, present- 
ing a scene of such lurid magnificence as to fill the heart 
with reverence and wonder. And by that same token, 
the sun is getting low in the northern sky, his altitude at 
meridian being only a little above 30°, or about the same 
as at New York towards the end of December. 

The day being chill and raw, with a noon temperature 
of 52°, a fire was lighted in the cabin stove for the first 
time ; and as the thermometer below has stood for a long 
while at 55° and a dismal drizzle prevailed all day, the 
heat and glow of the fire were grateful beyond expression. 
Latitude, 37° 42' south ; longitude, 47° 40' west. 

June 29 

From six o'clock yesterday evening till noon to-day we 
had a breeze so light that at times the sky-sails flapped 
idly against the masts, and for several hours we were be- 
calmed on a motionless sea, — a sea so wonderfully smooth 
that, but for the temperature, we might readily have fan- 
cied ourselves in the equatorial Doldrums again. At four 
yesterday afternoon a crisp little breeze came whipping along 
out of the south (although it lasted only two hours) 
driving away the squalls and muggy air, a bright, rosy 
atmosphere taking their place at sundown, with a horizon 
as sharply cut as the edge of a razor. As for the night 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

which followed, it was as brittle and sparkling as any even- 
ing in Nova Scotia, wanting only the flashing pennons of 
the Aurora Borealis to complete the picture. The firma- 
ment glittered with splendid constellations, the stars dancing 
and scintillating with the glance of steel, as though electric 
sparks, while the Milky Way seemed firm and solid enough 
to walk upon. A magnificent sunrise succeeded this match- 
less night, and we stood entranced by the glory of the 
scene for half an hour, watching the lovely colors shift 
every few seconds like the revolutions of a kaleidoscope, 
changing the tiny, pink, shell-like clouds into glowing, 
golden embers as the great orb touched the horizon and 
threw a path of crimson fire even to the vessel's side. 
Where are the gales of wind which are supposed to scream 
incessantly over the Southern Ocean? Where are the 
giant seas which sweep the South Atlantic with their 
foaming crests? It is not difficult to answer the latter 
question, for we will not meet with any of those tre- 
mendous rollers which have made Cape Horn the hob- 
goblin of navigators till we have cleared Staten Land and 
receive the full fury of the thousands of miles of tempest- 
uous ocean which lie to the south and west of the Horn. It 
is true that on our first voyage we experienced very heavy 
weather when in this latitude ; but then we were bound the 
other way and were near the forty- third eastern meridian 
(about four hundred miles the other side of Good Hope) 
at this parallel ; the weather, as a general rule, is far worse 
farther to the eastward at 40° south than in here near the 
land, where bright skies and much smoother seas are the 
rule rather than the exception. We are not more than three 
hundred and fifty miles from South America now, so that 
even if we did have a heavy westerly gale (westerly winds 
are almost constant south of 30° south) the sea could not 
rise to such heights as it does off Agulhas and Cape Horn, 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

But these gentle winds we cannot understand ; at dinner- 
time to-day, though, a nice httle breeze came along from the 
westward, and we are humming along under the sky-sails, 
doing well except that we are not making much westing, 
as we can' t do better than south by west. 

The captain is like one demented. As MacFoy whispered 
to me this afternoon when the jib-topsail-sheet parted, throw- 
ing him into a paroxysm, " If he doesn' t get a fair wind soon 
he'll go mad." In truth, he has been in a passion all day, 
chassezing up and down the main-deck as though he had 
a devil. Just before the sheet went he had a spasm of 
tautening things up, and went braying about with a voice 
of brass, driving the men like animals before him ; he had 
just ordered the above sheet flattened in when crack it 
went, and in a few seconds the clew of the sail was in flut- 
tering ribbons, for the wind, though not strong, whipped 
away the old canvas as though it were a cobweb. The 
mate caught it too when he came out of his cavern at quar- 
ter to twelve to take the sun, and by the time that we sat 
down to dinner the old man had worked him into a speech- 
less state, so that throughout the meal he sat crushed and 
silent, with a face like a cigar Indian. These repasts on 
such occasions are pregnant with gloomy thoughts, stillness 
reigning as the skipper fiercely gnaws at his dinner, clicking 
his teeth, while the whole top of his head seems to move 
as he chews, his temples particularly rotating like the 
eccentrics of a steam-engine. His head is quite bald, and 
his face is embellished with such enormous whiskers that 
his whole head looks like an inverted sea-anemone ; and 
when he is angry, as he was to-day, his black eyes so glitter 
and snap under such shaggy brows that they seem about 
to jump out and annihilate you. After dinner, which ap- 
peared to increase his ill-humor, being a dyspeptic, he 
went up to put some new panes of glass into the skylight 

153 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

which the sea had broken. He fussed and fumed around 
with putty, diamond, and chisel for half an hour, at the end 
of which time he had one pane nicely adjusted, when it 
cracked across one corner. This almost prostrated him, 
and when two other cracks appeared in rapid succession, 

each calling forth a low, intense ' ' d , ' ' he simply got 

up and ran away. 

Then this amiable man commenced on the mate again, 
who, of course, began to ' ' bullyrag' ' the men, and finally 
brought down young Louis Eckers to his knees with a 
hard blow in the face with his fist. This was due solely to 
temper, because he had to repeat an order which Louis 
didn't understand on account of his ignorance of English, 

Our first albatross presented himself to view this morn- 
ing. When you are making your first long voyage there is 
generally some confusion at first, resulting in the more or 
less similarity between an albatross and a molly-hawk. The 
latter are large birds and really look a good deal like the 
former ; but when you have seen an albatross half a dozen 
times, you will never forget his appearance. There is no 
mistaking that great beak or the odd hunchback-look of 
those shoulders, much less the majestic flight of the stately 
bird as he skims along close to the surface of the sea and 
then rises in a splendid circle on those great wings of his. 
Our friend of this morning, however, did not long abide 
with us, but, after looking us over, wheeled about and van- 
ished in the south. A Cape pigeon struck the taffrail this 
morning and fell on the poop by the wheel-house. He 
was a beautiful little creature, with a snow-white breast, 
dark-brown wings splashed with white, and a glossy black 
head and neck, with a sheen as of satin on the feathers. 
After sufificiently admiring the little fellow and showing him 
to the cat, who wouldn't approach within ten feet of him, 
we hove it overboard, and it whizzed screaming away to 

154 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

rejoin its companions, who now follow us in scores. Lati- 
tude, 38° 12' south ; longitude, 49° 35' west. 

June 30 

The bright happy weather of yesterday has given place 
to a chill, gloomy day with half a gale from the westward, 
while the ship under reefed topsails has been digging into 
a strong head-sea in quite a violent manner. How tender 
and delicate, so to speak, even the best and largest of 
wooden vessels really are ! For instance, at nine last even- 
ing the second mate said that he thought he would put the 
gaskets on the royals, the sky-sails having come in before 
supper. 

' ' What on earth do you want to stow the royals for ?' ' 
said I ; " there certainly is not wind enough for that." 

"No, it's not the wind," he answered, "but this sea's 
makin' ahead, and she'll strain goin' into it with the royals 
on her." 

There certainly was a southerly sea running, but the ship 
was diving easily, without wrenching or pounding ; and it 
surely was very surprising that a powerful ship like this 
would have to shorten sail for such a swell. " And that's 
Just the great point in favor of an iron ship," said Mr. 
Rarx ; ' ' you can drive her through most anything and not 
give her a thought. You know the ' William J. Rotch' ? 
We opened her all up forrad a-drivin' of her into a head- 
sea beatin' up the Sea of Japan trying to find Willywood- 
stock in a fog. ' ' 

" Where's that place ? It's new to me," said I. 

"Siberia," was his reply; and it was not until some 
hours afterward that I grasped his meaning ; he intended 
to say Vladivostok. 

As the night wore on it grew squally, and at three in the 
morning the fore- and maintop-sails were reefed, while at 

15s 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

four o'clock the massive iron hook on the cross-jack-tack 
carried away, and the sail was saved only by the prompt 
and good work of both watches. I awoke in the midst of 
the operation, and above the boom of the seas we could 
hear the skipper's hurricane voice shouting, " Haul away 
on those buntlines ; haul away on those buntlines ; haul 

AWAY ON THOSE BUNTLINES.'' 

At five yesterday afternoon, just before we clewed up the 
sky-sails, we sailed through a whole fleet of albatrosses, 
feeding quietly on the water. It was the first time that we 
had seen so many of the big birds at rest at one time, and 
they looked very large and dignified as they rose and sunk 
upon the swell. To say that we sailed through them is not 
strictly Correct, though, for when we had approached to 
within two hundred yards or so they rose from the surface 
and went sailing away into the southwest. It is always 
interesting to watch them rise from the water, flapping their 
immense wings, each two yards long, and rapidly paddling 
with feet as large as cabbage leaves to gain an impetus ; 
when, the wind striking beneath their pinions, they stow 
their great feet somewhere in their stern feathers, and with 
a couple of powerful strokes of wing away they soar up to 
windward ; and you can watch an albatross for half an hour 
at a time thereafter, and not a single alar movement can be 
discerned. 

The Scottish bosun entertained me last night for some 
time in drawing comparisons between various sailing ships. 
I asked him how the men liked it here. ' ' Why, can' t you 
tell ?' ' said he. ' ' They don' t like it at all ; and I can tell 
you it's no child's play aboard here. Most of the men, you 
see, have come out of British ships, where they don' t break 
men's bones with clubs or their hearts with drivin'." 

* ' If you like British ships better than ours, what did you 
sign in this one for ?' ' I asked. 

156 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

" Why did I ?" he replied. " Why, for the same reason 
that lots of others do, — for the sake o' the Snug Harbor. 
Ye see, if any man serves five years in American ships and 
can prove it, he can end his days in peace and comfort in 
the Sailors' Snug Harbor on Staten Island, where they take 
care of him. But, say, I never see a skipper like this one 
before. Has he slept at all since we came to sea? I'm 
hanged if I think so, for at all times o' the night the first 
thing you know there's th' old man standin' within two 
foot of you on the main-deck, like a black spook. Lord 
knows how he gets around, /don't." 

To-day we attained the highest southern latitude which 
my wife and I ever reached, as on our first voyage around 
the other cape 39° 5' was the southernmost point. Having 
crossed the fortieth parallel, we have also probably passed 
without the influence of the river Plate region ; but it is too 
bad that we are not two hundred miles farther to the west- 
ward. Latitude, 40° 31' south ; longitude, 51° 10' west. 

July i 

Strong winds from the westward, shifting in the morning 
watch to southeast, and a rough sea prevailed up to noon 
to-day, when it cleared up, a persistent rain having added 
its portion to the dreariness of the weather. At five this 
morning, when the wind shifted to the southeast, we wore 
and stood in shore on the port tack, heeling well over to 
a strong breeze. Both wind and sea increased as the 
morning advanced, and at nine we had to take some of 
the sails of! the ship. And here mark the skipper's per- 
versity : at this particular moment we were in quite a severe 
squall, and I shouted to him, " It's breezing all the time." 
"No, it ain't," he replied, harshly; "the wind's lettin' 
go." Ten minutes later he ordered the maintop-gallant- 
sail to be clewed up, and in another five minutes he ordered 

157 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

in the spanker. Anything to differ from me and express 
an opinion of his own, even if he has to act against it. 

After these two sails had come in the ship was easier, 
but the sea was making very rapidly, and in another hour 
we were taking large quantities of water aboard. It was a 
wild sight then : an immense squall overhanging us and 
darkening the heavens and the sea ; the ship enveloped in 
clouds of whirling spray ; the driving rain, whipping us 
with the sting of a lash ; the crash of a sea now and then 
against the forward house ; and the flock of sea-birds astern 
wheeling and diving through the squall, with a brace of 
gaunt, gray albatrosses sailing calmly along, as though this 
were a tropic zephyr. 

During one of these squalls the carpenter was observed 
at work on the weather side of the forecastle-house, dodging 
the seas as each gave warning of its approach by a peculiar 
motion just before it broke aboard, which one soon learns 
to know. We were beginning to think that if he didn't 
look sharp he would catch it, when a great mass of water 
arose alongside, faltered a moment high up above the rail, 
and then, with overwhelming fury, the whole sea thundered 
aboard. First it flattened Chips out against the deck- 
house as though he had been crucified against it ; then it 
lifted him, mighty man though he is, and drove him with 
terrible force against the pumps ; while the huge volume of 
water, encountering the various obstacles in its mad career 
about the deck, shot into the air as high as the mainyard, 
totally blotting out the waist of the ship. What saved that 
carpenter from mortal hurt is beyond human ken. The 
mate says that it was his sheathing of blubber which encases 
his carcass like that of a seal. At any rate, he painfully 
gathered up his clumsy, massive frame and stumbled for- 
ward with both hands on his left leg, which proved to be 
very badly bruised, and he complains now of a hard pain in 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

his chest. This was by far more water than we have had on 
board at any one time, and it is difficult to conceive of the 
grandeur of such a sea breaking aboard, though it is an 
awful sight withal ; its power seems resistless, and as it 
sweeps over the side with a peculiar, crushing sound, one 
involuntarily grips the rail or a belaying-pin with the grasp 
of a vice. 

When this last squall had passed, lo ! a ship to wind- 
ward, and I was again the first to sing out ' ' Sail ho. ' ' There 
is much secret pleasure for me in this ; for, whenever it oc- 
curs, the captain always walks over to Mr. Goggins, who is 
generally wool-gathering at the break of the poop, and 
asks him if there is anything in sight. ' ' Naw, sir, there 
hain't nothin'. Oh, yes, there's a sail to wind'ard, sir, 
through the fog." "Oh, thanks," usually answers the 
skipper ironically, by which the mate knows that he's been 
caught again. 

Visions of the ' ' Dowes' ' appeared to us as we studied 
the stranger as closely as the flying spray and rain would 
permit, the ship being under her topsails with the main-sail 
hauled up. Presently, though, we saw that she had no sky- 
sail-yards, proving that she was not our friend ; while her 
short, thick, pole bowsprit showed that she was doubtless a 
metal ship, which belief was later confirmed by painted 
ports. 

At noon the sun burst through the dense pall of cloud, 
and an afternoon of dazzling beauty followed, with the 
good old " Higgins" surging ahead over the long, blue, 
foaming seas, a sky of sapphire overhead, dappled with a 
few thin, cirrus clouds and a grand breeze over the beam, 
giving us about eight knots on a southwest-half-west course. 
Just at noon the other ship, too, presented a splendid ap- 
pearance. To begin with, she was a very handsome vessel, 
and had so altered her position as to be close astern, a little 

159 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

on our weather quarter, distant about one-third of a mile. 
Her topsails and courses (she had set her main-sail and cross- 
jack) were swelled out like great cylinders, while her painted 
ports lent her the dignity of an old-time frigate ; and she 
presented to us a perfect ideal of the poetry of motion as 
she rolled deeply but easily, now sinking into a valley to 
her lower yards, now cleaving the lofty crest of a breaking 
sea which veiled her in a storm of spray. 

At half-past one we decided to signal her, and ran up 
our number, to which she instantly replied that she was the 
' ' La Pallice' ' ; then we informed her that we were from 
New York bound to San Francisco, fifty-one days out, 
while she proved to be from Hamburg for the same des- 
tination, and was fifty-nine days at sea ; after which we 
dipped our ensign, which she answered with the tricolor of 
France. 

• We are reading Nansen's "First Crossing of Green- 
land" together with the greatest interest, being one of the 
most charmingly written of all stories of Arctic work. What 
a delightful time we will have with his ' ' Farthest North' ' ! 
We have it on board, but I am waiting till we pass 50° 
south, so that we can read it in a part of the world almost 
as rough and desolate as he passed over in his great journey. 
Latitude, 42° 24' south ; longitude, 52° 36' west. 

July 2 

We had a good breeze from the south all last night and 
this morning, which put us off to about west by south ; but, 
as our aim for the past four or five days has been to make 
westing rather than southing, this breeze was most accept- 
able. The strong wind of yesterday eased up in the second 
dog-watch last night, and we carried the top -gallant-sails 
without trouble afterward. 

A great change has taken place in the temperature, for 

1 60 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

at eight this morning the thermometer stood at 38° in the 
air and 47° in the water, — a fall in thirty-six hours of 15° 
in the atmosphere and 16° in the sea. People who have 
never been exposed for consecutive hours to a temperature 
at sea of between 30° and 40° can have no just idea of how 
penetratingly cold the wind is when the mercury drops 
below 40°, or of how many clothes it is necessary to wear 
if one wants to stay on deck a long while without constant 
motion. For example, I have on now two suits of heavy 
underwear, pilot-cloth trousers, a heavy jersey, a whip- 
cord waistcoat, a padded leather jacket, and a mackintosh ; 
the costume is completed with mention of knitted woollen 
gloves and socks and leather boots and ditto hat. Now, 
there are numerous brawny, burly individuals who will ridi- 
cule this mass of apparel, and insist that one ought to keep 
moving, which would make it unnecessary. But to begin 
with, our promenade is here limited to seventy-five feet 
instead of several hundred, as in the case of a transatlantic 
steamer ; and, besides, I have not that maniac passion for 
pedestrianism which lays so fierce a hold on some people 
the instant that they set foot upon a vessel's deck. When 
I want exercise, half an hour at the pumps, even in cold 
weather, is sufficient ; and Pll warrant that it would be 
enough for the brawny, burly individuals before noticed. 
Neither of us came to sea to stay below, so we pile on suf- 
ficient clothes to repel even the strongest blasts, and can 
sit comfortably and unruffled for hours on deck without a 
break. 

Points in connection with such a voyage as this can be 
learned only by experience ; our first one gave us all that 
was necessary, so that we knew exactly what to bring with 
us this time. A leather jacket very thickly lined is almost 
inconceivably useful, as are a pair of heavy leather knee- 
boots, at least one size too large, to allow for woollen socks. 
II 161 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Such boots well greased will be sufficiently water-tight for 
all ordinary purposes, and if they should become water- 
logged, they can always be dried at the galley-fire ; rubber 
boots, though, should never be omitted from the sea ward- 
robe. The best head-gear is a woollen cap with ear-flaps, 
and a sou'wester, of course, for bad weather. As to oil- 
skins, there is now manufactured a water-proof stuff, which 
has proved in this case to be everything that is claimed for 
it. It is brown in color, and in texture much like a mack- 
intosh, but harder to the touch, and is in two pieces, — 
short jacket and trousers. These suits have been used 
in the life-saving service on the Atlantic coast, and the 
only objection which the men made to the suits was that 
the, sand cut the stuff in a high wind, so that in a short 
time it became quite porous. At sea, however, I have 
never found the equal of one of these suits ; and, as a test, 
I stood for two hours yesterday in drenching rain and spray 
in one position, so as to allow the elements full continuous 
sweep at one point, and when we went below the inside of 
the jacket was not even damp. A long oil-skin coat is ex- 
tremely unwieldy at sea, for if it is blowing at all hard the 
skirts cling to the legs most aggravatingly, and I have had 
some hard falls by being thus tripped. All mates wear 
long yellow coats, however, and I wondered why until yes- 
terday, when I asked Mr. Goggins if a short jacket and 
pants wouldn't be more comfortable ; but he replied, indig- 
nantly, ' ' Wot do yer think I am, a foremast ' and ?' ' It 
seemed to me that a mate who has to wear a long coat to 
distinguish him from an ordinary sailor must be like the 
man who tells another that he himself is a gentleman, — he 
must be somewhat in doubt about it. 

It is to be hoped that this treatise on deep-sea garments 
has not proved a bore ; but after our previous voyag,e so 
many persons asked us what we wore in bad weather in the 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Southern Ocean, that the above explanations may not be 
out of place. My wife dresses much as she would for golf, 
— a short skirt and leather gaiters for clear, cold weather, 
with yellow oil-skins when it rains and the spray flies. 

We observed some further fine cloud effects to-day a 
little after sunrise, the horizon being smothered at frequent 
intervals with dense squalls ; and at nine o'clock a ponder- 
ous mass of cumulus cloud appeared in the south, rearing 
its immense domes nearly to the zenith, like heaps of yellow 
wool, for the sun's reflection changed the color of the great 
bank to that of rich cream, while far below, at the base, the 
cloud shaded oR into a dim, sable mass. "There's snow 
in that fellow," quoth the skipper, which was certainly 
true, for ten minutes later we were swallowed up in a thick 
snow-squall, which lasted for fifteen or twenty minutes. 
Snow seemed to be a singular phenomenon on the second 
of July, not to mention the biting cold. Latitude 43° 8' 
south ; longitude, 56° 45' west. 

July 3 

This morning broke with a clear sky and little or no 
wind, and when the sun came up fine and rosy, he looked 
over the rim of the horizon across an azure sea just crinkled 
by a faint westerly breeze. Light as it was, though, there 
was a biting sting in it which, before breakfast, set the 
teeth chattering and raised one's knuckles into big gristly 
knobs. The broad sweep of the South Atlantic was well- 
nigh motionless, for it was only at considerable intervals that 
a slight swell came sighing up from the Antarctic, and the 
sea was as calm as off Newport in August. Clothes sus- 
pended against the walls hung without motion, and we 
might well have fancied ourselves in Long Island Sound ; 
as for the day, it was cloudless save for an occasional snow 
flurry, which lasted only a few minutes. This clear, cold, 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

merry weather at sea is indescribably charming, though, no 
doubt, the men would tell a different tale, for Olsen and 
Jacquin, who were mending an old fine-weather royal on 
the cabin-house this morning, had to knock off work now 
and then to beat some feeling into their stiffened fingers 
before they could drive the needles through the canvas. 

As we draw nearer and nearer to Cape Horn the men 
are daily growing very anxious to know the ship's position, 
and as I am, of course, the only individual on board who 
will gratify their curiosity, they often ask me several times 
a day. Frequently, on the main-deck, a man will ask 
what the position is in a very low tone, after a careful 
scrutiny round about to see that none of the after-guard is 
hard by. Sometimes, as I pass by the wheel-house, I am 
assailed in a raven's whisper with, " Say, mister, what's the 
latitood ?' ' and their pleasure at being told is quite child- 
like. A passenger on a sailing ship, by the way, is seldom, 
if ever, called by his name ; he is simply ' ' mister. ' ' Of 
course, in a general way, sailors often get an idea of the 
approach of land from the discoloration of the water, the 
increase in the number of vessels sighted, and the presence 
of land- birds ; but the average sailor probably couldn't tell 
within much less than a thousand miles of where he is on a 
voyage like this. Even a second mate is generally very 
much in the dark on this subject, for he is never a naviga- 
tor on American ships, as he ought to be, and keeps no 
reckoning. We have often seen Mr. Rarx go up to the 
mate and hint in various ways that he would like to 
know the ship's position at noon. The mate sometimes 
tells him ; but Mr. Rarx is too good a seaman to stand 
well with such a man as the mate, who does not know 
very much more of that art than some of the sailors. Be- 
sides, it might get to the men through one of the bosuns, 
which would be truly horrible and unspeakable ; therefore, 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

unless there is a passenger aboard, sailors live in almost 
blank ignorance of their whereabouts throughout a four or 
five months' voyage. 

The bosun of the port-watch, big MacFoy, has been 
limping badly for several days, his left foot being so se- 
verely mashed and swollen that he cannot bear even a loose 
rubber boot on it. This is the result of a sea which fell 
upon him one night at the weather forebraces. It slung 
him across the deck and jammed his foot against a fife-rail 
stanchion, but luckily broke no bones. I have promised to 
give him a glass of grog to-morrow, the Fourth of July, 
but exceeding caution will have to be exercised lest I be 
apprehended by the powers. 

Yesterday the main-spencer was rigged, and as this is a 
heavy-weather sail, a description of it may prove of interest. 
It is otherwise known as a storm-try-sail, and, being a fore- 
and aft-sail, is set on the main lower mast. A number of 
stout screw-eyes were driven into the mast, extending from 
a point about eight feet above the deck to an iron band 
three feet below the top ; through these eyes an iron rod 
was inserted, and to this rod the sail was laced. A standing- 
gaff was then rigged, furnished with hoops, to which the 
head of the sail was bent, the method of setting being by 
hauling it out on the gaff, like the fore- and aft-sails on 
steamers. It is forty-four feet long on the luff and twenty- 
two on the gaff, and is, of course, of No. o duck, with a 
bolt-rope nearly as big as the fore-tack. The spencer is 
what is known as a steadying sail in bad weather, and is 
usually set after the courses have all been hauled up and 
the ship is head-reaching under the lower topsails, or when 
the ship is regularly hove to. 

There was a very turbulent scene enacted while the sail 
was being bent. The mate was aloft, swinging over the 
rim of the top in a bowline, trying to fit the end of the gaff 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

into a gooseneck, both man and spar flying wildly about 
as the ship rolled. Two vangs led down from the gaff-end 
to the deck, one on either side, while a man on each, try- 
ing to hold it steady, was jerked about like the tail of a 
kite. The mate was already in a passion, for no sooner 
would he have the end nearly in the socket than away it 
would fly, while he himself brought to with a thump against 
the futtock-shrouds. At this juncture Captain Scruggs 
appeared with his sextant. It was the signal for chaos. 
Everthing almost immediately was plunged into inextrica- 
ble confusion. Something had manifestly gone wrong with 
the old man below, for he was bristling when he laid down 
his instrument on the deck-house and walked with fore- 
boding leisure to the break of the poop. You could see 
that he was seething within himself ; but for some time he 
appeared totally unconscious of the mate, the spencer, and 
everything else ; but when the gaff drew off and smote the 
taut weather-shrouds with the force of a steam-hammer, he 
thought it was time to take a hand. Did the mate give an 
order he would instantly countermand it, sandwiching in 
sarcastic remarks, such as, "Ah, that's beautiful ! You'd 
make a master-rigger, you would. Think you'll git that 
in by dark ? I could put the whole main-mast in while 
you're scratchin' away up there." At these pleasantries 
old Goggins fairly snarled and bared his teeth in devilish 
grins, but kept silent. At last, seeing a chance, he bawled 
to the man below who was surging up on the rope, 
' ' Lower away smart, now. " " Hoist away, there, ' ' im- 
mediately cried the skipper. Behold the fatal straw on the 

dromedary. ' ' ' Ow in the name o' G am Hi to do this, 

Cap'n Scruggs, if you don't let me alone?" And then 
they went at it like Kilkenny cats, so that the air quivered 
with blasphemous discharges. It was quite astonishing to 
hear the mate answer back with such intrepid vehemence, 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

and they kept it up so long that the captain lost his sight ; 
for when he removed his sextant the sun was falling, which 
didn't add very much to the geniality of his temper. 
Scenes of this sort are heralded with the most intense joy 
by the men, who turn their heads away to hide faces which 
actually glisten with delight. Latitude, 43° 13' south ; 
longitude, 58° 24' west. 

July 4 

We celebrated Independence Day not with pyrotechnical 
demonstrations, but with a remarkable barometric perform- 
ance : it fell seven-tenths of an inch in ten hours, from 
30.40 to 29.70, and this with an ugly look to windward. 
The breeze began to freshen late yesterday afternoon, and 
at five o'clock in came the fore- and mizzen-royals. At 
table, the various utensils suddenly began to jump about, 
which was very astonishing, inasmuch as the sea was al- 
most perfectly quiet half an hour earlier. The breeze kept 
on making, and when we came up from supper, at six 
o'clock, the captain ordered the main-royal- and mizzen- 
top-gallant-sail clewed up. At this time the ship was diving 
heavily, and it was time to take the fore- and maintop- 
gallants off her, too ; the skipper had just concluded to furl 
them, when, with a great weltering plunge, the ship pushed 
her lofty flaring bows completely under a coaming sea, and 
then instantly rearing back, the enormous mass of water 
was projected with terrific force against the forward end of 
the forecastle-house. It smashed the lee door like card- 
board, though it was three inches thick, and then washed 
aft like a Hooghly bore, absolutely filling the lee decks to 
the rail with solid water, — that is, it was six feet deep in 
the scuppers, and it seemed incredible that any bulwarks 
could withstand the strain ; yet the water ran off in a few 
minutes, leaving no further trace of its power than a snarled 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

mass of running gear which had been lifted off the pins. 
Good luck that the lookout had just been ordered to the top 
of the house instead of the forecastle-head, or there wouldn't 
have been much of him left after that sea had struck him. 

The forecastle, though, was a spectacle indeed. Its 
doors open forward, which no sailor likes ; and when the 
big sea came from dead ahead and stove the lee door, the 
water poured into the house in thousands of gallons. It 
stood a foot deep on the floor, and shot up violently to the 
carlines at every roll, washing the men's bedding out of 
even the topmost bunks (they are always built in three 
tiers, one above the other), while their chests went banging 
about in the deep water, the majority of them burst open, 
and others broken all to pieces. The sills of the doors on 
all ships opening on the main-deck are usually about eigh- 
teen inches high, to prevent the entrance of water, if possi- 
ble ; but if, as in this case, a great quantity finds its way 
into the forecastle, these very sills prevent its egress. To 
be sure, there are leaders which are supposed to draw the 
water off, but they are so small that more than an hour 
passed before all the brine had disappeared. How sorrow- 
ful and helpless the poor fellows looked as they surveyed 
their drenched clothes and broken chests ! and, worse than 
all, the dank, soaked forecastle. It means more suffering 
and privation than landsmen have any idea of, for the men 
will have to sleep in soggy, clammy, mildewed bunks for 
at least a month. No forecastle ever dries off Cape Horn, 
on account of the intense humidity of that region ; and 
even if the forecastle has a stove in it, it doesn't dry things 
out, but calls forth instead a rank steam from the reeking 
walls, which pervades the room like a foul mist. 

All this time the glass had been falling, and we looked 
for bad weather ; the captain had the main-sail hauled up, 
and in every way stood by for a heavy blow. But we 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

worked out a false reckoning, for the wind shortly after- 
ward let go more than half, while the aneroid rose to 29.85, 
where it is now. Since six o'clock this morning we have 
been about six points off our course, with the wind at 
south-southwest ; therefore the captain once more wrapped 
himself in his mantle of wrath, and throughout dinner kept 
mumbling continuously to himself concerning the proba- 
bility of there being a Jonah on board. This was not the 
first time that he has hinted at such things, and, though 
we knew well that he meant us, I didn't say anything, but 
let him growl on. It is almost impossible to conceive how 
unpleasant it is to be considered a Jonah aboard ship ; it is 
easy to say, ' ' What' s the use of paying any attention to it ?' ' 
But you can' t help heeding it, though it is only superstition, 
and the eyes of every one on board aft seem to say, ' ' Look 
at the Jonah." Foremast hands do not care how long 
they are at sea if they get decent food and even passably 
good treatment ; indeed, the saying among them is, ' ' More 
days, more dollars." Still, in spite of everything we are 
reminded of that dismal verse in the " Ancient Mariner, "- 

" One by one, by the star-dogged moon, 
Too quick for groan or sigh. 
Each turned his face with a ghastly pang 
And cursed me with his eye." 

There is another cause, however, for the skipper's bad 
temper ; yesterday we slaughtered our first pig, and at all 
three meals to-day we had fresh pork. Captain Scruggs 
caused prodigious quantities of it to disappear and has 
been in anguish ever since. Indeed, it is hard to imagine 
anything edible which will so upset one's digestion as 
fresh pork at sea ; it is bad enough ashore, where plenty 
of exercise is to be had, but aboard ship one hearty meal 
of pork freshly killed will cause an incredible amount of 

169 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

distress. The skipper instanced an illustration of how 
difficult it is to digest at sea : on the last outward voyage 
he killed a pig just before he reached San Francisco, and, 
the weather being too warm to keep the meat sweet, most 
of it was given to the sailors. Now, these men can digest 
sour, soggy bread and salt beef like ironwood, yet this 
fresh pork vanquished them, and five men were actually 
laid up in their bunks at the end of the second day. 

Had many severe hail-squalls during the last twenty-four 
hours, but fine weather otherwise, sharp and clear. Lati- 
tude, 44° 41' south ; longitude, 59° 58' west. 

Julys 

Very light southerly airs and a calm sea have added 
vastly to our surprise at such weather off Patagonia. How 
remarkable it is to find these gentle, variable winds here, 
when the popular notion of this region is a continuous 
westerly gale! Findlay's "South Atlantic Directory," 
however, indicates generally fine weather from 40° to 50° 
south near the land, and this has been our skipper* s almost 
invariable experience, except that the wind ought to be to 
the northward instead of to the southward of west ; at the 
present moment, though, the breeze shows signs of hauling 
to the northward with the sun, instead of against, so per- 
haps it will stop there for a while. The wind has been so 
light and contrary for the twenty-four hours, that in that 
period we made only eight miles of latitude and seven of 
longitude ! 

My wife and I have finished reading Nansen's " First 
Crossing of Greenland," and during its perusal we learned 
some remarkable facts. For instance, it is strange how the 
body craves fat or grease of any sort when deprived of it 
for a long while ; and it is also very odd to read that a 
lump of butter eaten alone slakes the thirst of men in the 

170 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Arctic regions ! I wonder why Nansen doesn't undertake 
the ascent of Mount Everest ? It seems to me that he, 
with all his strength and vitality, would be peculiarly well 
fitted for such an expedition, not to mention his being a 
man of science. How much interest the writings of Sir 
Joseph Hooker would lack if that great mountaineer had 
not been a scientist ! The amount of risk to Nansen, too, 
in comparison with an Arctic voyage, would be very small ; 
while the glory of being the first to stand upon the topmost 
pinnacle of the earth's surface could be dwarfed only by 
the attainment of the Pole itself. I have loaned the second 
mate the Greenland book, as Mr. Rarx is deeply interested 
in such work, and is desirous of joining an expedition to the 
North Pole. He fears not being able to pass the physical 
tests necessary before becoming a member of the crew, but 
as he has considerable knowledge of the Peary Greenland 
expedition, it is my notion that he tried to join it, but was 
rejected ; and as he laid stress on the fact that no one would 
be taken who had any old scars on his person, it is not un- 
likely that he was barred for this reason. Considering his 
lean, powerful frame, he ought to be well able to endure 
hardships. 

Looking at the spencer, which is, of course, brailed up in 
such light weather, Mr. Rarx said, ' ' Oh, those are great 
sails ! Wait till it's blowin' and she under that and the 
topsails ! They'll stand a power o' wind, but I've seen 
'em blown away. I was second mate of a Nova Scotia 
ship, the 'Mary L. Burrill,' a few years ago, and we 
were bound across this time from Greenock to St. John in 
February, which it isn't necessary for me to say anything 
more about the weather. We'd be'n lyin' to for twenty 
hours under a goose-winged maintop-sail and spencer when 
the wind all at once rose to a perfect hurricane and hove 
us down to the hatches. And then the maintop-sail and 

171 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

that there spencer, sir, nearly as hard and thick as a plank, 
flew away like a muslin handkercheef ; and though we had 
double gaskets on all the sails, four of ' em was blown loose 
and ripped off the yards like paper. Now, it's blowin' 
pretty hard when a lower maintop-sail goes, but nothin' 
short of a hurricane can budge a new spencer. But no 
canvas ever made will stand a' North Atlantic midwinter 
gale, and you hear me. We sighted a big White Star 
freighter this day, and she afterward reported the wind 
eighty miles an hour between the squalls ; not in 'em, mind. 
And if you want to see somethin' to put joy in your heart, 
you ought to see these big White Star steamers in a heavy 
gale ! I saw the ' Cufic' once comin' across in another 
cyclone in the * J. B. Walker,' and the way she kept clear 
of the seas was a caution. I'm a good enough American, 
but you can' t beat Harland and Wolff very much. ' ' 

Mr. Rarx is an infinitely more agreeable man to talk to 
than the mate, who is the longest-winded and most tire- 
some old porpoise who ever spun a yarn. His only rec- 
ommendations are his hideousness, which is positively at- 
tractive, and his strange, absurd facial contortions when he 
doesn't intend to be funny. Sometimes during the first 
watch, when it is very dark, with the exception of the bin- 
nacle lamp which casts its rays upon him as he crosses its 
path, he is actually weird-looking. His voice, too, is as 
husky as a rusty hinge now, owing to a severe cold, and 
last night he vented some curious statements. Neither 
of us had said a word for maybe five minutes, I watching 
the compass card, he grinning and mouthing to himself 
in the moonlight. Presently he wormed himself over to 
where I stood, looked earnestly at me a few seconds and 
croaked, — 

' ' You' 11 see plenty of people in California with no 
teeth." 

172 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

"How is that?" said I. 

"Dunno," he replied; " they do say it's the climate; 
anyhow, you'll see lots with nothin' but gums." 

Then he crawled back to the other side, performed some 
further silent, facial acrobatics, returned, and wheezed out 
mysteriously, " You'll be bothered with fleas there ; they're 
that plenty I always has a regular quadrille with ' em. ' ' 

A remarkable habit the captain has at table of asking 
the mate if he won't have some of everything in sight ; 
no matter how many dishes there may be on the board, 
the skipper always gazes fiercely at him for a moment, and 
then says rapidly and severely, ' ' Have some of the salt 
meat, Mr. Goggins ? Have some beans ? Have some 
potatoes? Have some bread? Have some sparrow- 
grass?" All this in one breath, to which the mate 
answers, " A leetle, if you please, sir ;" or if it's a second 
asking, which is merely form, he replies with his droning, 
" No-o-o, sir, I thank you, sir; I've 'ad sufficient, sir, I 
thank you, sir," as though to show how he is depriving 
himself, for he insists that it is vulgar to enjoy eating ! 

Sometimes the old creature corners my wife and me and 
entertains us with anecdotes of his acquaintances in San 
Francisco and how excessively numerous his influential 
friends are there. He will tell us that 'Arry Dolan is now 
getting seventy-five dollars a month at the Union Iron 
Works ; and when^ we venture the opinion that he must 
be a rising young man, he answers, "Oh, 'Arry's all 
right. Why, I knew him w'en he was gettin' only three 
dollars a week at the Works. ' ' Here generally follows a 
genealogical history of the Dolans for several generations, 
while their individual characteristics become the subject of 
minute discussion. 

Well, we're beating slowly, slowly, down the inhospita- 
ble shores of Patagonia, and our luck doesn' t seem to be 

173 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

much better than it was in the southeast Trades. Lati- 
tude, 44° 49' south ; longitude, 60° 5' west. 

July 6 

If our nautical instruments had not assured us that we 
were at noon in about 45° south, distant one hundred and 
twenty-five miles from Cape Dos Bahios, we might easily 
have imagined the ship to be lying oR Staten Island in 
New York Harbor. We never but once before saw the 
sea so free from swell, and that was in the Indian Ocean, 
thirty-four miles south of the equator ; which position we 
not only held for twenty-four hours, but during that entire 
period no one perceived the least motion in the ship. It 
is true that to-day we made nearly one hundred miles ; 
but from eight till eleven this forenoon we were motionless 
on the water, while a stage was slung over the stern a foot 
from the surface, on which the mate and the carpenter 
worked for two hours on the rudder-head ; it is only once 
or twice during an entire voyage that a vessel for hours at 
a time will not rise and fall twelve inches. To us it is 
really a remarkable experience to thus float silently along 
within three hundred and fifty miles of the Falklands, 
though the skipper says, "Well, I told you we'd have 
light weather north of 50°." 

At noon to-day, however, the western sky indicated a 
breeze, and presently a little breath stole ever so gently 
over the quiet ocean, scarcely curling the smooth, level plane 
of the sea ; and, gradually freshening, the ship gathered 
steerage way in five minutes or so and began to lazily move 
ahead through a large flock of Cape pigeons which had 
settled to feed in great numbers during the calm, though 
we could perceive nothing edible in the water. The birds 
seemed to delight in the breeze as much as we did, for in 
light weather they seldom rise higher than a few feet above 

174 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

the surface, lacking the force of wind which enables them 
to rise easily ; as in a strong breeze they make no further 
effort than to guide themselves, rising and falling without 
movement of wing. A huge, hoary albatross, a perfect old 
patriarch, has been with us all day, skimming over the water 
so closely as to touch it occasionally with his breast, and 
seldom more than a foot from it. It is wonderful that they 
can maintain so close and uniform a flight to the surface, 
without movement and in a calm. 

The day before yesterday, being more exasperated than 
ever before at the skipper's continuous grumbling at the 
weather, I told him that I thought that he asked altogether 
too much in demanding a fair wind all the time, and that 
when a man began a voyage he ought to expect more or 
less head-winds throughout the passage, for they were to 
be expected anywhere and at any minute at sea during a 
whole voyage, even in the Trades. Since then he hasn't 
said a word against the weather, and is, for him, extremely 
agreeable. Heavens, how hairy he is ! So thickly covered 
is his whole face that the only visible bare spots are his nose 
and eyes ; for his beard grows right up over his cheek- 
bones, and his eyebrows seem to be spreading all over his 
forehead. So dense are his whiskers that when he comes 
on deck after a session with his Dutch pipe the smoke can 
still be seen eddying and seething in his beard. 

Last evening as we were reading some of Kipling's de- 
lightful sea-poems the skipper called down and asked 
whether we wouldn't like to see a lunar rainbow. We 
went on deck at once, and there, sure enough, was a perfect 
specimen of this strange phenomenon, and so clearly de- 
fined that the brighter colors were distinctly visible. We 
had seen but one lunar rainbow before, and that was a very 
faint one in the Bay of Bengal, about one hundred miles 
from the Sandheads. 

175 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

It is a curious fact that, like captains, there are compara- 
tively few foremast hands who remain perfectly strong and 
well throughout a long passage. At least eight of ours 
are looking quite seedy, some with bad colds, others with 
various disorders of liver and stomach, so that they have 
to be doctored and fixed up with an assortment of medi- 
cines. The way that five-grain blue-mass pills fly around 
on a deep-water ship is a caution ; one would think they 
were peppermint drops. Latitude 45° 20' south ; longi- 
tude 62° 10' west. 

July 7 

What a change can be wrought at sea in a few hours ! 
At eleven yesterday morning we were motionless upon a 
glassy sea ; eight hours later we were rushing southward 
under the topsails before a moderate gale ! 

' ' And now the storm-blast came, and he 
Was tyrannous and strong ; 
He struck with his o'ertaking wings. 
And chased us south along." 

Throughout yesterday afternoon the breeze steadily 
freshened, and by four o'clock the sky-sails had been 
stowed, followed at five by the royals, while after supper 
the gaskets were put on the three top-gallant-sails and the 
cross-jack was hauled up ; the ship logging exactly twelve 
knots between six and seven o'clock, the best which we 
have done yet, the wind being true and steady from west- 
northwest, a little abaft the beam. I have seldom seen a 
finer sight than that presented by the ship as she went 
bounding away south by west before this grand breeze 
blowing straight off the pampas of Patagonia ; the moon, 
now at first quarter, casting a broad wake of silver ra- 
diance over the short, steep, foaming seas which had arisen 
as though by magic, and were already snarling and show- 

176 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

ing their teeth up above the weather-quarter. By ten 
o'clock the spray had begun to bury the waist of the ship 
once more, while at intervals during the night a deep, 
heavy boom told us that something beside mere spray was 
tumbling over the weather-side. 

When we went on deck this morning there was no dimi- 
nution in the wind, though it had shifted into the west ; 
but as the captain had kept off to south, it was still on the 
beam. The maintop-mast-stay-sail had been set, and we 
found the watch in the act of hauling out the spencer on 
the gaff, and we presently had an opportunity of seeing 
this piece of canvas in actual use for the first time. Its cut 
was excellent, and, together with the stay-sail, steadied the 
ship wonderfully. The main-sail was reefed, so that the 
arch of this great sail, which curved over the ship like the 
crescent of the moon, was fully thirty feet above the deck. 
Although still carrying the six topsails and the foresail, we 
were not taking anything but huge volumes of spray 
aboard, in spite of the fact that the surface of the ocean 
to windward showed long, parallel streaks of foam, like the 
cross-section of a rasher of bacon, — an appearance observed 
only when it is really blowing hard. 

When one has been accustomed to the heavy, rigid main- 
sails of yachts, a ship's canvas in comparison (bar the spen- 
cer) appears to be, and really is, singularly thin and limp. 
Even a brand-new foresail or main-sail of a square-rigger 
cannot at all approach in thickness or rigidity a yacht's 
canvas ; and it could not for a moment withstand the strain 
to which the latter' s main-sail is subjected while being 
stretched on the boom and gaff, not to mention the ' ' sweat- 
ing" up of the sails with the jigs. As for a ship's upper 
canvas, it has always seemed to me too light, and I shall 
never forget my first acquaintance with square-sails at close 
quarters. It was at Nassau. Walking one day through a 
« 177 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

sponge-yard, I saw stretched on the ground great squares 
of smoky, hempen canvas ; and on feehng the various 
pieces, which were the topsails of a vessel that had struck 
and gone to pieces on Memory Rock, one hundred and 
fifty miles northwest of New Providence, I remember think- 
ing that it wasn't at all surprising that the sails of ships 
blew away if this was what they were made of. At any 
rate, I put this vessel down as an old worn-out lumberman, 
fit for nothing but carrying railway ties from Brunswick or 
Pensacola to New York. As a matter of truth, these sails 
belonged to a fine British ship, the ' ' Blair Drummond' ' ; 
and experience has since shown that her canvas was neither 
better nor worse than the average, though hempen sails 
never feel as thick or stout as those made of cotton-duck, 
which our ships use. The advantages claimed for hemp 
are that it lasts longer, and that sails made thereof are 
easier to handle than if made of cotton-duck, but they do 
not present nearly so fine an appearance even when new. 
If a ship's canvas were made entirely of No. o, or even 
of No. I, duck, it would be next to impossible to furl 
them in a hard blow. As it is, with the soft, pliable duck 
and hemp, the blood often starts from the men's finger- 
ends from trying to gather in the bunt of the sail, which 
bellies out like sheet-iron when the halliards have been let 
go. It was only this morning that the mate told me that 
once, about thirty years ago, when a foremast hand in the 
North Atlantic trade, he was one of thirty men on the 
maintop-sail-yard (single) of the ship "Southampton," 
trying to put the third reef in the sail during a January 
gale. "And, sir," said he, "we could tzo/ have tied the 
reef in that sail if the ship had been sinkin' under us, and 
that with a man for every reef-point. " It is also surprising 
how neatly and compactly this thin canvas can be furled on 
a yard. From the deck hardly anything at all can be seen 

178 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

on the royal- and sky-sail-yards ; while even the upper top- 
sails when in the gaskets are not anything like as bulky or 
hummocky as the most fastidiously furled yacht's main-sail. 

I forgot to say that I gave David, the Scot, a drink on 
July Fourth. He had been throwing out clumsy hints for 
one on that day, so I filled a four- ounce bottle with Glen- 
livet and took it to him while he was eating his dinner in 
his tiny, water-logged cavern forward of the galley. The 
radiance reflected from his countenance upon the walls as 
he sighted the grog fairly lit up the gloomy den, and when 
he had downed the fiery liquid perfectly raw, he put down 
the bottle and delivered the following oration, his superb 
figure raised to its supreme height : ' ' Wherever ye may 
go in this world, sir, may good luck go with ye, hand in 
hand ; may it not be many years till ye get command of a 
ship and the finest one under the flag ; I thank ye for the 
best drink that ever passed me lips." I was quite taken 
aback by his earnestness and the depth of feeling with 
which he uttered these words in the broadest of brogue so 
pleasant to the ear ; and when he hoped that I would soon 
command a ship, he was wishing me to hold the most 
exalted position which the mind of a seaman can conceive. 

By the look of the aneroid we are close to some dirt, as 
sailors say, for now at 3 p.m. the glass stands at 29.08, a 
fall of an inch in twenty hours ; the sky, too, has a hard 
look, the sun at noon being unable to pierce the gloom, but 
shining hazy and dim, like a gas-jet behind frosted glass. 
The altitude at noon now is only 20°, and the sun's rays 
are devoid of heat and almost of cheer. Last evening, 
though, we witnessed another one of those rare and radiant 
Patagonian sunsets. Every one who has looked at the 
illustrations in Nansen's "Farthest North" will call to 
mind some strange, impossible-looking purple and crimson 
stratus clouds of the most violent hues. Well, we have 

179 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

actually seen one of these singular and extremely gorgeous 
skies, unnatural almost in its transcendent beauty. Nansen 
has caught perfectly the more delicate tints as well as the 
most flaming colors. 

We did fine work to-day, and in the twenty-four hours 
logged two hundred and forty miles. Latitude, 48° 45' 
south ; longitude, 65° 5' west. 

July 8 

At some time during the morning watch we crossed the 
fiftieth parallel of south latitude, and have, therefore, now 
commenced the passage of Cape Horn, the stormiest head- 
land in the world, at the worst possible season, — in the 
heart of the Antarctic winter. When a vessel is between 
50° soutli in the Atlantic and 50° south in the Pacific she 
is said to be making the passage of the Horn, and is off 
the Cape when she is anywhere between those parallels ; it 
matters not how far south she may be blown, she is ' ' off' ' 
Cape Horn from 50° to 50°. I think that I have some- 
where before said that an average passage would be about 
twenty days, though the bad luck of some men is aston- 
ishing. On her last westward voyage, for instance, the 
American ship " M. P. Grace' ' was more than six weeks 
off the Cape, — forty-five days, to be precise. 

Late yesterday afternoon the westerly winds which we 
have carried for two days began to weaken, and at seven 
last evening had eased down to a gentle breeze. Still, a 
wind which will drive a vessel three hundred miles in thirty 
hours in this part of the world and allow her to lay her 
course at the same time is not to be lightly spoken of, and 
we are all in a happy frame of mind. 

When the wind had almost let go, however, it began to 
edge stealthily to the southward, and at 8. 30 was at south- 
west, the dreaded point, blowing in unsteady jerks. We 

180 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

had nothing above the topsails on the ship, though she 
could easily have carried the royals, but there was no use 
in piling on the canvas with the look that there was in the 
southern sky. When the glass stands at 29.00 bad weather 
must be expected ; and when the captain left the deck at 
8.45, the moon was peering dimly through a gray, thin 
squall, bleared and sickly ; the sea was coming up from 
various points in short, convulsive, oily heaves and a frown- 
ing rampart of dark cloud was rising in the south. "I'm 
going below now for a wink," said the skipper to Mr. Rarx, 
on watch ; "keep your eye open, for when it comes it'll be 
sharp work." 

He had been down half an hour when, as the second 
mate and I stood watching the cloud approach nearer, an 
angry, white glare now below it, suddenly, without a 
second's warning, like a blast from a cannon, the wind fell 
upon us, laying the ship far over, although the spars were 
almost naked. In a few moments Captain Scruggs rose 
out of the companion-way and stood for an instant, con- 
sidering the best move ; I have never yet seen him act 
without thinking, and it doesn't take him long to decide. 
"Shall we double-reef 'em, sir?" said Mr. Rarx, meaning 
the upper topsails. "No, sir," replied the captain; "let 
the yards run down and then tie up the sails ; call the port 
watch, sir; all hands shorten sail." "Ay, ay, sir," 
heartily ; and the next moment the second mate swung 
himself down the weather-poop-ladder, stopped for a second 
to rap on the mate's door, and then disappeared forward 
in the wet and gloom, while we could hear his clear, strong 
voice crying out above the howling wind, ' ' All h-a-n-d-s, 
shorten s-a-i-1. " 

And now what an inspiring scene is enacted as the big 
ship plunges forward, now on an upright keel, now heeled 
far down to leeward by the fierce puffs which shriek through 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

the rigging with a din which is absolutely infernal. Stand- 
ing by the weather-quarter-bitts looms up the burly form of 
Captain Scruggs, whose keen, vigilant eye takes in every 
detail of the ship and the weather ; while the gaunt, mo- 
tionless face of the helmsman can be seen through the 
wheel-house windows, illumined by the glow from the bin- 
nacle light. In another moment a dull, rumbling sound 
is heard forward : it is the upper foretop-sail-yard running 
down, and then the dim figures of fifteen or sixteen yellow- 
clad sailors can be perceived as they jump into the rigging 
and claw out along the yard to windward and to leeward, 
utterly unmindful of the pelting rain which stings their 
faces, or the quick, tremendous rolls which one would 
think must whip them off into the sea. Oh, bold and 
valiant seamen, toiling so well and so silently up there in 
the gale and darkness, truly, ye are the bravest and the 
least rewarded of men ! 

In another hour the ship was under the shortest canvas 
thus far, — lower topsail, foresail, reefed main-sail, and spen- 
cer, — bending over to the blast, the wind now rushing 
through the shrouds with that grand, deep hum like the 
whirr of powerful machinery. 

Throughout the night we kept ploughing ahead through 
an ever-increasing sea, with showers of buckshot hail rat- 
tling overhead like storms of bullets, varied now and then 
with heavy dashes of spray against the cabin-house. 

At eight this morning, though, the wind had so moder- 
ated that we set the upper topsails, the ship wallowing con- 
tinuously in a big head-sea which had made during the 
night. At noon, though, it began to breeze up once more, 
and at one o' clock the cry rang through the ship, ' ' All 
hands, reef the maintop-sail." Again the men trotted up 
the weather-rigging and turned in a double reef in less than 
twenty minutes ; not bad for a merchantman. It is curious 

182 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

to see the delight with which an order to shorten sail is in- 
variably received by a ship's company on the approach of 
heavy weather. No matter what their humor at the mo- 
ment may be, they always seem actually pleased when the 
expected order comes from the after-guard ; and, with eager 
glances over their shoulders at the approaching squall, they 
leap into the shrouds and race aloft to see who shall be the 
first over the rim of the top. 

For the first time we, to-day, had stocking-leg duff for 
dinner. It consists usually of a quantity of stewed dried 
apples wrapped up in a roll of dough and boiled in a piece 
of cheese-cloth. It is by no means a bad substitute for 
apple-dumpling, and with good sauce is always hailed at 
sea with extravagant joy. The name originated in the fore- 
castle, where the duff is always boiled in the leg of a stock- 
ing. Latitude, 50° 48' south ; longitude, 64° 34' west. 

July 9 

At twelve o'clock last night it began to blow hard from 
west-northwest, and we went on deck this morning to find 
a fresh gale from that quarter, with a surprisingly heavy 
sea, considering the proximity of the land, for the weather- 
shore was not more than sixty or seventy miles away. The 
ship was under the lower topsails, foresail, reefed main-sail, 
and spencer, going well and easily, a couple of points free, 
heading into the land for smoother water. Gracious, how 
the wind yelled around us this forenoon, drenching the ship 
fore and aft with the tops of the foaming seas, which the 
gale whipped like the blowing of froth from a vat of beer ! 
In the severest puffs the wind certainly rose to force 10 ; 
and on one occasion, when sliding down the weather-side 
of a sea, being simultaneously struck by a heavy blast, we 
dipped the lee poop-rail into the sea. At breakfast the 
skipper said, "There was sharp lightning in the sou' west 

183 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

this morning, early, and when you see this off Cape Horn, 
look out for bad weather and snug her down," I should 
think so, with the barometer at 28.98. 

A new bird has made its appearance. It is of a light 
slate color, looks and flies like a Mother Carey's chicken, 
and is familiarly called by sailors the Ice Bird, being 
supposed to exist chiefly in the vicinity of ice. They 
are very cheerful little creatures, though, and being small 
and light, were whisked about by the gale like scraps of 
paper. 

We are just abreast now of the damp, dreary Falkland 
Islands, which, if I mistake not, form the southernmost of 
all of Great Britain's colonies ; she may possess islands 
which are farther south than these, but they are not strictly 
colonies. The group comprises some two hundred islands, 
though there are only two of any importance, — East and 
West Falkland. The area of the former is three thousand 
square miles, being considerably larger than Rhode Island, 
and contains the most important settlement, Stanley, a 
town of one thousand inhabitants. The climate of the 
Falklands is extremely healthy and equable, the average 
temperature for the two midwinter months being 37°, that 
of the two midsummer ones 47° ; and although in the cor- 
responding latitude and the precise longitude of the south- 
ern part of Labrador, ice seldom forms of sufficient thick- 
ness to allow skating. The weather, however, is excessively 
damp. But, though there are generally two hundred and 
fifty wet days in the year, the total annual precipitation 
is but twenty inches, or one-half that of New York ; the 
greater portion of the moisture descending in the form 
of fogs and dense drizzles. More than fifty vessels a year 
call at Stanley Harbor, and being so close to Cape Horn, 
in the vicinity of which more ships are damaged by the 
elements than in any other region in the world, it is natural 

1S4 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

that a ship- yard and chandlery for the repair of saiHng ships 
should pay extremely well. But, say the deep-water skip- 
pers, woe to the vessel which falls into the clutches of Stan- 
ley Harbor ; it is almost impossible to escape in less than 
six months, and the most exorbitant prices are asked for 
absolutely necessary things. The last vessel of any size 
which put into Stanley for extensive repairs was the British 
ship " Pass of Balmaha," which was detained there for 
nearly a year. It is stated that the ship-yard, etc., pays 
forty per cent, on the investment. 

At one o'clock this morning we passed Cape Virgins at 
the Atlantic entrance to the Straits of Magellan, distant 
about seventy-five miles, and at eleven this morning Mr. 
Rarx saw the land on the weather-bow, and presently the 
lonely, barren shores of Tierra del Fuego rose faintly out 
of the sea and appeared also on the port bow, as though 
we were sailing into the heart of a deep bight, as indeed 
we were. Before long great ice-covered peaks began to 
appear, and I asked the skipper if he was going to keep 
away for the Straits of Le Maire. ' ' No, ' ' he replied, 
"I'm not going through now for several reasons ; in the 
first place, I think the wind will head us in the straits, and 
fn the second place, as long as this wind keeps on I'm 
going to heave to under the land when we get farther 
down. What's the good of going through? As soon as 
we showed ourselves outside Staten Land there' d be this 
westerly gale, with who knows how much sea ; then there's 
a two-knot current settin' to the eastward, and this, with 
three points of leeway, would send us to leeward like a 
cask. Better lie snug inside than go smashin' into those 
seas. In a day or two perhaps we can go through the 
Straits of Le Mar. " It is odd that every ship-master whom 
I have ever heard mention these straits should call it Le 
Mar instead of Le Maire. Captain Scruggs added that we 

185 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

would have fine views of Tierra del Fuego later on, as he 
was going to run down to within ten miles of the land ; we 
are therefore anticipating a very great treat. 

It is utterly impossible to fitly describe these sunsets or 
to do justice to the wild grandeur of the scene as the orb 
slowly and majestically settles into the sea among the far- 
away, golden- cushioned clouds. In the tropics the sun 
seems to drop suddenly behind the horizon ; but in these 
high latitudes, he sinks so hesitatingly that it appears as 
though he were loath to bid us good-night. The air at 
this time of day is most wonderfully transparent here, 
with a sparkle of frost in the atmosphere ; while the 
clouds, being almost exclusively of the stratus variety, 
stretch across the horizon in layers of fiery embers, with 
sometimes a gorgeous fringe of cloud-fleece crowning the 
scene with a coronet of dazzling splendor ; while if a 
heavy bar of dark cloud extends almost to the sky-line, 
the sun will be observed glittering beneath it upon the 
crests of the far-distant seas, with the appearance as of a 
phalanx of golden breakers. 

The heavens on this side of the Cape seem to be always 
clear with a westerly wind, even when blowing a gale ; 
and as the twilights are exceedingly long, the days so far 
are anything but disagreeable. The dismal, rainy weather 
will come when we get over beyond the longitude of the 
Horn. Gradually the sun is getting lower at noon, the 
altitude to-day being but 14°, while the orb rises at a point 
about northeast by north and sets in the west-northwest. 
It is a significant fact that at twelve o' clock to-day we were 
exactly abreast of the southernmost extremity of the main- 
land of the world. Cape Horn is generally regarded as 
this point, but the Horn itself is naught but an island, the 
farthest south of the great archipelago of Tierra del Fuego ; 
the culminating promontory of South America being Cape 

186 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Froward in the middle of the Straits of Magellan, one 
hundred and twenty-two miles north of the Horn. Lati- 
tude, 53° 54' south ; longitude, 66° 6' west. 

July 10 

All night we have been lying ofT and on under shelter of 
the coast, waiting for a favorable slant. Under easy sail, 
the lower topsails and foresail, we approach to within six or 
eight miles of the land ; and then wearing round, stand 
to the northward for twenty miles or so, repeating the 
manoeuvre slowly, never making more than two miles an 
hour. The wind still holds to the westward, blowing a 
moderate gale, but with perfectly smooth water here where 
we are. On the other hand, outside it is doubtless blowing 
a hard gale with a heavy sea ; as the skipper put it, " Out- 
side it's a regular Cape Horn snorter. I lay in here six 
days with a westerly gale three years ago. All ships, you 
know, lie in here when the wind is like this till they get a 
slant. You see, if we went outside now, while we could get 
to the s'uth'ard all right, to-morrow at noon we'd likely 
be a hundred miles to the east' ard of where we are now. 
As for goin' through Le Mar, I wouldn't try it with the 
wind to the north' ard of nor' west. " 

So here we are in water as free from swell as a Central 
Park lake, taking things very comfortably indeed. But if 
the sea is free from swell, it is continuously whipped into 
foam by the succession of tearing snow-squalls which strike 
us with seemingly cyclonic fury. At eleven o'clock, for in- 
stance, it will calm down to a royal breeze ; at 11. 10 it will 
be blowing a full gale, accompanied with a driving snow- 
storm, which whirls the flakes along in a horizontal tempest ; 
and as the temperature was at 33° all day, the drifts lay 
in the scuppers until shovelled overboard. How cosy and 
cheerful it is to come down to the great, glowing stove 

187 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

from one of these black squalls and the roaring wind and 
the sleet and hail, which feel as though they were drawing 
blood as they sting the face with a fury which is simply re- 
sistless ! For below everything is delightfully comfortable 
at a temperature of 65°, and we draw near to the red coals 
and shiver composedly as we listen to the watch hauling 
around the yards to the cry of ' ' wear ship. ' ' 

We will never forget the spectacle which met our eyes 
this morning half an hour after daybreak. Right before us 
lay the bleak shores of Tierra del Fuego, stretching from 
east to west as far as the eye could see, the wildest, grandest 
coast which the mind can conceive. Sheer down into the 
sea fell its almost vertical walls of rock and steep, rugged 
hills, with their black gorges and frowning chasms filled 
with . the snow which had fallen heavily during the night. 
Farther inland extended a broad expanse of rolling plateau 
covered with small knolls ; and then in all their desolate 
sublimity rose the magnificent range of snowy mountains, 
thousands of feet above the sea, clad in their eternal mantle 
of dazzling white. I have never before seen such a picture 
as that presented by this deserted, volcanic land. The 
gray, mournful hills and snow-clad Alpine peaks, now 
buried in a raging snow-squall, now rearing their ice-crowned 
summits far above the mists which shrouded their less ex- 
alted companions, filled the mind with the idea that their 
Maker, displeased at His own handiwork, had abandoned 
forever these lonely shores to the gloomy pall of cloud 
which usually enfolds the land in its cold, clammy embrace, 
and to the fierce, wild gales which sweep everlastingly 
through its gaunt and spectral mountains. What eerie 
fancies the dark and powerful genius of Edgar Allan Poe 
could wreathe about this fantastic, uncouth land ! Oh, for 
a day's wandering through those valleys and ravines, as 
cold and cheerless as the moon itself ! And how I envied 

188 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

the "Beagle's" men their months of sojourn amidst the 
grandeur of these fascinating hills ! 

Some curious forms are to be seen in connection with 
many of these peaks. The most conspicuous landmark 
consists of three hills called the Three Brothers, from 
twelve to sixteen hundred feet in height ; ship-masters 
always look for them, as they can then tell exactly where 
they are. One of the loftiest of the ice-peaks, a mountain 
fully five thousand feet high, bears a strong resemblance to 
the Matterhorn when the shadows of evening fall across its 
great snow-cliffs ; another looks singularly like the rounded 
cone of Cotopaxi. And so it goes, one peak apparently 
more beautiful than its neighbor, till the eye is bewildered 
gazing upon such wonderful Antarctic scenery. How in- 
tensely interesting it must be to pass through the famous 
Straits of Magellan and look upon the wonderful panorama 
which is revealed at every turn of the rudder ! Steamers 
are the only vessels that go through now in either direc- 
tion, as the channel is very tortuous and the currents are 
powerful and treacherous. The experiment was at one 
time considered by the Chileans of maintaining a fleet of 
large tow-boats at Cape Virgins to tow vessels through the 
straits ; but it was concluded that the ships would have to 
be taken so far out into the Pacific beyond Cape Pillar to 
get an othng, which would frequently be impossible on 
account of westerly gales, that the project was abandoned. 
The expense of towing, too, would be very great, as four 
hundred miles separate Capes Virgins and Pillar, and no 
ship-master, of course, would tow to the eastward, as there 
is nearly always a fair wind coming around this way, so that 
the tug-boats would have to return empty-handed. 

The climate of this country is as equable as that of the 
Falklands, though even more humid. The temperature 
seldom falls below 30° even in July ; but, on the other 

189 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

hand, it seldom rises above 50° in midsummer, and the 
wind at all times is extraordinarily cold and penetrating. In 
spite of this, however, the natives pass their lives in abso- 
lute nakedness, their sole protection against the rigors of 
the inhospitable climate being a smearing of oil upon their 
bodies, and in this state they go out to meet vessels passing 
through the straits. It seems almost inconceivable that 
human beings can live thus in such severe weather, for 
their exposure is infinitely greater than that of the Esquimo 
even in his temperature of minus 70°, for the latter is 
warmly clad and housed. The Yahgans, as the inhabitants 
of the lower portion of the archipelago are called, are of 
particularly low intelligence, and, according to Dr. Fenton, 
they not infrequently kill and eat the old and useless 
women of the tribe. Their language comprises about thirty 
thousand words, but, strangely enough, only five numerals. 

Since 1881 the eastern portion of Tierra del Fuego, to- 
gether with Staten Island (usually called by sailors Staten 
Land), has belonged to the Argentine, and the western 
end to Chile, the boundary-line being supposed to run 
from Cape Espiritu Santo due south to Beagle Channel, 
the only settlement within hundreds of miles being Punta 
Arenas (Sandy Point) on the Patagonia side of the straits, 
where the Chileans have a convict and coaling station. 
The Straits of Magellan were discovered by the celebrated 
Portuguese of that name, though he spelled it Magalhaes, 
who sailed through them in 1520. If any one wishes to 
look at a remarkable sight, let him possess himself of one 
of Imray's charts of Tierra del Fuego and examine the pro- 
digious number of channels, fjords, and inlets in this re- 
mote and vast archipelago which forms the abode of eight 
thousand people as low in the gauge of civilization as can 
be found upon the earth. 

I wonder how many persons are aware of the fact that 

190 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

the famous old ' ' Dreadnaught' * laid her bones upon the 
bleak rocks of Tierra del Fuego as her final resting place ! 
She drifted ashore near the Straits of Magellan, while on 
a voyage to San Francisco, during a heavy swell in a dead 
calm, with her main-sky-sail set. What a sorrowful end 
for that grand old ship, the " Wild Boat of the Atlantic," 
the queen of the clippers, the fastest of all the great fleet 
which sailed the ocean from Sandy Hook to Queenstown ! 
Peace to her remains in her grave by these iron-bound 
shores ! Latitude, 54° 19' south ; longitude, 65° 45' west. 

July ii 

Late yesterday afternoon the sun astonished us by burst- 
ing out in glorious splendor, and for the two remaining 
hours of daylight we sailed along parallel with the land 
distant only eight miles, in plain view of the Three Brothers, 
past Cape St. Vincent and Thetis Bay. Truly, the days 
are none too long now, for the sun rises at 8. 30 and sets at 
3.30, so that on dark days — and there are plenty of them 
here now — we have not more than six hours of what can 
be called daylight. Last night was very fine, too, with 
an almost full moon soaring through a cloudless sky. 
Throughout the earlier part of the evening we continued 
to hold an easterly course, for the captain wanted to have 
a look at the Straits of Le Maire to consider the chances 
of going through at daybreak. Some little time after we 
had finished supper, about seven o'clock, I think, we 
caught sight of the huge, snow-bound cliffs of Cape San 
Diego, the southeasternmost extremity of Tierra del Fuego, 
lying calm and cold in the white moonlight, and a little 
later we opened out the clear water of the Le Maire Straits. 
Then we saw outside a thick bank of woolly cloud low 
down in the southwest, and the skipper concluded that he 
wouldn't risk going through the next day, as that bank 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

was the infallible indicator of a heavy blow. Added to 
this, too, was the long, heaving swell of the Southern 
Ocean piling in through the fourteen miles of open water 
in the straits, so we wore round and stood to the north- 
ward again. It was very pleasant last night on deck, for 
though it was blowing hard the lee side of the wheel-house 
made a delightfully snug retreat, and, enveloped in moun- 
tains of rugs and shawls, we sat there in the deck-chairs 
till nearly eleven, discussing the voyage and enjoying the 
clear, soft moonlight. 

We awoke this morning to the howling of the wind and 
Captain Scruggs' s voice raised in furious anger, the helms- 
man sustaining the full shock of the vocal hurricane. It 
was the unhappy Briin, who throughout the voyage has 
suffered more than any one else from the temper and vio- 
lence of both captain and mates. "Hey you, what the 
blank's the matter with yer? Put yer wheel hard down 
there and let her come up to the wind. The other way, 
the other way. Don't yer know the difference yet between 
up and down, eh ? What the blank did yer come to sea 
for anyway? You're a haymaker, that's what you are. 
Look at the ship now ; d'ye want to get her aback ? Hard 
up yer wheel ; hard up, you blank-blanked farmer's hound ! 
How yer headin' now ?' ' 

"Nor' west by south, sir," answered the poor devil, 

nearly out of his head. ' ' Now, by the jumpin' ' ' Here 

the wind cut off the rest, but there was a tumultuous 
scufifle of feet, and I could very well imagine the scene 
which was being enacted overhead ; so as quickly as pos- 
sible we dressed and went on deck to find a fresh gale blow- 
ing from the westward, with a very steep, quick sea. It 
was just daybreak and both sky and sea had a very fero- 
cious aspect, the atmosphere being charged now and then 
with long spears of sleet. After looking at the weather 

192 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

for a few minutes I happened to glance to leeward, and was 
almost stunned to behold the ponderous headland of Cape 
St. Anthony, at the western end of Staten Land, tower- 
ing into the sky, not more than three miles away ! No 
wonder the old man was almost in convulsions. ' ' We 
must be in the Straits of Le Maire," said I to my wife. 
And so we were. It appears that Captain Scruggs had 
determined to try it, and had gone half-way through, when, 
at the eleventh hour, he decided that he couldn't fetch by 
the land ; and as the wind came on to blow a gale which 
the woolly bank had foretold, he wore ship to stand to the 
northward once more. He probably miscalculated the 
strength of the current, which runs through the straits with 
astonishing velocity, often reaching five knots an hour, for 
all at once the mate, whose sight in semi-darkness is better 
than the skipper's, called out, "Land on the lee, sir." 
Our position was really one of great peril, for we were 
on a dead lee shore and unable to carry sail enough to 
double the point with any degree of certainty. If we 
didn't weather it, it was good-by for all hands, for even 
now we could see the great surges seething against that 
terrible coast, where the land is so bold that a ship may 
lay her jib-boom end head on against the cliffs and still have 
fathoms of water beneath her keel. With the canvas which 
was on her at the moment, lower topsails and foresail, it 
was an impossibility for the ship to hold her own, and as 
quickly as possible a double-reefed maintop -sail was set, 
the difference in going to windward being felt at once. But 
could she carry it ? She fnust, for the lives of twenty-seven 
persons depended upon the ship's weathering Cape St. 
Anthony. No one thought of breakfast, and at half-past 
eight it was blowing harder than ever, and in the heavy, 
windward rolls it seemed as though the masts themselves 
would succumb to the terrific pufls. From the shore we 
'3 193 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

must have presented a magnificent spectacle indeed, had 
any one been there to witness the struggle going on be- 
tween man's skill and Nature's power. Slowly we forged 
ahead ; but slowly and far more certainly we drove down 
toward the foaming rocks ; and all hands by this time, 
even the most callous of the sailors, realized that we were 
fighting in earnest now, fighting to save the ship. Not a 
word was spoken by any one ; the men were collected at the 
weather-rail in the waist watching the land draw nearer and 
nearer, while the captain stood on the cabin-house motion- 
less, except when he slightly revolved his arm as a signal to 
the helmsman to hold her up all he could between the puf?s. 
Oh, how deserted and bleak the immense gray-brown cliffs 
and snow-streaked hills of Staten Land appeared, broken 
now and then by gigantic fissures which extended far inland 
between vertical walls, against which the sea broke furi- 
ously, throwing cascades of spray high into the air ! Astern, 
too, the view was equally rugged and grand, for across the 
Straits of Le Maire we could see the ragged coast of Tierra 
del Fuego and the massive white cone of the Bell Moun- 
tain rising up beyond the Bay of Good Success. 

All at once it became apparent to us that we were hold- 
ing a better wind, the land no longer seemed to advance 
upon us, and at the end of another half-hour, during which 
no one seemed to scarcely breathe, to our unspeakable joy 
it was plain that the worst was over and that, bar accident, 
we would fetch by without further anxiety ; and presently 
the skipper turned to Louis, the Frenchman (for this 
splendid seaman had steered the ship beautifully since 
eight o'clock), and said, " Now give her a good rap-full"; 
in thirty minutes more all danger was over and we stowed 
that upper maintop-sail which had done such noble work. 

One P. M. The wind has risen to a full gale with puf5s of 
almost hurricane force ; and though we are still protected 

194 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

by the land, the sea is running high, probably thirty feet 
from crest to trough, and breaking in an ugly manner. At 
noon the order was passed, ' ' All hands haul up the fore- 
sail. ' ' This was the first occasion on which it was blowing 
too hard to carry that sail ; and when it has to be stowed it 
is blowing what sailors call a heavy gale. The wind, in- 
deed, almost blew the breath back into one's throat ; but 
the brave old ship behaved finely, and after the foresail was 
hauled up, no matter how high or fast the advancing wave 
was or how suddenly it broke, the back-wash would rush 
out from the vessel's side, and, meeting the on-rushing sea, 
they would shoot far up into the air, to be blown in drift all 
over the ship, while she rode calmly and safely over the 
crest. We have not set the spencer lately, as we have 
been wearing every few hours, which would necessitate 
brailing it up every time ; I was surprised that the captain 
didn't set it this morning, but he seemed to depend more 
upon the maintop-sail. 

There are two vessels to windward knocking about 
under easy sail as we are, — one a small bark, the other a 
large four-masted ship, square-rigged all over, — waiting for 
a slant. My wife has recovered her equanimity now (about 
three in the afternoon), for she was not unnaturally upset 
by the events of this morning. She behaved astonishingly 
well, though, during that crucial hour, and her courage 
and fortitude cannot be too highly commended. Latitude, 
54° 20' south ; longitude, 64° 30' west. 

July 12 

It came on to blow so hard yesterday afternoon that 
tackles were put on the tiller, and a little before four o' clock 
the ship was hove to, so that when we went on deck at 
eight bells, after writing up yesterday's journal, the ship 
was riding the seas smoothly and dryly. Perhaps it wasn't 

195 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

absolutely necessary to heave the ship to, though she was 
far more comfortable that way, the difference being quite 
remarkable. The first object which attracted us as we 
went on deck was a three-masted ship head-reaching past 
us on the starboard tack under lower topsails and foretop- 
mast stay-sail, distant about half a mile. When yachts 
pass each other on opposite tacks they lie so close to the 
wind that they cross at right angles to each other, thus : 
. But when two square- riggers pass each 
/ 1 other, close-hauled, they are so far off the 
wind, especially in a high sea, that they 
run past each other parallel. This shows 
how the stranger and ourselves passed by : 
_,.. It did not require much of an eye to discern 

-Mr^ that this was the Frenchman, the ' ' La Pal- 



|] 



' ' ' lice," which we spoke about ten days ago 

bound round the Horn from Hamburg ; and I must say 
that she commanded admiration as she slowly ran by us 
in the gathering dusk, a beautiful specimen of the iron 
ship-builder's art. As previously mentioned, the relieving 
tackles were put on the tiller at about four o'clock, after the 
wheel had thrown the helmsman completely over itself and 
through the lee wheel-house door, for he clung heroically 
to the spokes. 

When the ' ' La Pallice' ' was about half a mile astern, 
she put her helm up to wear round on the same tack which 
we were on. At that moment the whole spectacle was a 
most thrilling one, ourselves plunging into a fierce head- 
sea, the flocks of sea-fowl whirling through the gale, and 
the angry sky, each contributed its part to the sombre 
picture ; while a great rent in the western clouds cast a 
broad shaft of light through the gloom full upon the big 
Frenchman, now in the act of wearing. Even Captain 
Scruggs and the second mate were impressed with the 

196 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

solemnity of the scene until they were attracted by the 
actions of the stranger. She had now worn completely 
around on the port tack, and as she had passed us so close 
to windward, we all thought that she would come up on our 
lee-quarter. But what is this ? Can it be possible that her 
captain is going to try to put himself on our weather to 
show how his ship can hold a wind ? He can scarcely be 
so mad as that. On comes the ship, however, nearer and 
nearer ; fathom by fathom she hauls up on us till she is 
not more than a quarter of a mile astern and not two hun- 
dred yards to windward, and we can plainly see the whole 
of her forefoot, as her great bows, shearing through a sea, 
are flung high up, and then come crushing down in a 
smother of foam. All of our men have crowded to the 
side, for here is a spectacle indeed : a vessel bearing down 
upon another hove to and without steerage-way ! How- 
ever, she has still time to put her wheel up and pass under 
our stern ; but no such notion is entertained by the maniac 
in command of her, and he is pinching her till her weather- 
leeches shiver in his mad endeavor to pass us to windward ; 
and as the ship rises to a sea and pauses for an instant on 
its crest, it seems as though she would topple right down 
upon us. At this juncture Captain Scruggs begins to grow 

anxious, as well he might, and mutters, "Is that d 

fool really going to try it ?' ' Five minutes more pass, and 
it becomes evident that we must get out of her way or be 
cut down by that sharp iron stem. Now this is quite a 
long job, being hove to, for it would be at least several 
minutes before we could gather headway. But we must do 
something, so the skipper sings out, ' ' Cast off those 
tackles," and two men are sent to the wheel. Anxiously 
we watch to see her head fall off, but she stubbornly hangs. 
"Square that crojjick-yard. " This is done; and then 
very heavily and clumsily we fall off and begin to gather 

197 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

way. So close are we to the Frenchman now that we 
could talk to those on board if the wind were not so strong. 
But we are not out of danger yet, for the French skipper 
seems possessed of a devil, and follows us up, as his vessel 
appears to handle like a yacht. It is but a few minutes 
more, though, until we have put half a mile of clear water 
between ourselves and M. Crapeau, and the danger is, for 
the time being, a thing of the past. 

All through the night, though, this demon ship haunted 
us, as if we were a magnet which resistlessly attracted her 
iron hull. I believe that if Captain Scruggs and the second 
mate could have laid hands on the French skipper, they 
would have strangled him. At supper, whither we repaired 
after the excitement, the captain delivered the following 
address : "If you see an English, or a Dutch, or a Ger- 
man, or a Danish, or a Norwegian, or an American vessel 
near you, don't be afraid, for he's all right. But if it's a 
Frenchman or an Eyetalian, get behind the horizon just as 
soon as you can, for nobody can tell what he's goin' to do." 

During the night sail was made, the wind having dropped 
to force 7, and this morning broke fine, clear, and cold, 
and showed us the frog-eater to windward. Will it be 
credited that no sooner did he catch sight of us than he 
started down the wind toward us ? At least, so it looked ; 
but he had only squared away for Cape St. John, at the 
other end of the island, having evidently given up all hope 
of the Le Maire Straits. 

We were presented with a beautiful view of the middle 
part of Staten Land this morning at eleven o'clock. It 
differs from the western end in that the snows, instead of 
being confined to the upper half of the mountains, appeared 
to reach down to the sea itself. How silent and cold the 
hills looked with the sun striking the sharp peaks and 
throwing its purple shadows across the great snow-fields 

198 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

between ! So dazzling were the mountains that, had we 
not known them to be land, we would have supposed that 
they were icebergs. It is singular that such a scene is not 
one of desolation, but of immutable repose, and seems to 
partake of that calm, fascinating peace and quiet which so 
irresistibly attracts explorers to the Polar seas. It was a 
vista of enchantment, and it was difficult to believe that in 
the region of Cape Horn there existed scenes of such sur- 
passing loveliness. 

It was the captain's intention to try the straits once 
more this afternoon ; but, alas ! the implacable westerly 
winds began to lash out again ; and it is now, 3.30 p.m., 
blowing as hard as ever, the sky is covered with heavy 
snow-clouds, and everything is gloomy and dreary once 
more. We now have to light the lamps below to read by 
soon after two o'clock ; this is the third day of westerly 
gales, and goodness knows how long they may have been 
blowing before we got down here ; these are the winds 
which keep ships ofi Cape Horn for a month at a time. 
One of the most arduous and protracted passages of the 
Horn was that of Lord Anson on his famous voyage in 
1740-41, when he was three months in doubling the stormy 
Cape ; while in modern times the cases of the British ships 
" Natuna" and " The Hahnemann" offer examples of what 
the weather can do down here. They each made passages 
within the last year of about two hundred and thirty days 
from Great Britain to San Francisco. The " Natuna" had 
a particularly hard passage ; she made four distinct attempts 
to round the Horn, but was driven back so far each time 
that Captain Fretwurst decided to square away for the 
Good Hope passage, which he did, running down the 
eighty-five degrees of longitude which separate the capes 
in nineteen days. The cargo was a miserable one, cement 
and creosote, and while of? the Horn some of the casks 

199 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

containing the latter were stove, and the drinking-water 
became tainted with the disagreeable stuff. To the east- 
ward of Good Hope the parrels of several of the yards 
carried away in a gale of wind, and the captain had to lash 
them with chains and wire, while he ran away over into 
130° west before hauling up to the northward. The other 
vessel, "The Hahnemann," had just as hard a passage, 
though she stuck to Cape Horn, and her captain died dur- 
ing the voyage. About eighty-five guineas premium had 
been paid on both vessels, 

A curious phase of the weather to the northward and 
eastward of the Horn is that a westerly gale generally 
doesn't blow steadily for more than twelve hours, when it 
will clear up for a while and then begin again ; while fine, 
clear nights often succeed the most villanous weather during 
the daytime. 

This morning we sent down the three sky-sail-yards and 
secured them on top of the forward house ; this is the 
practice of some ship-masters, while others never do so ; 
but to strike them must certainly greatly relieve the strain 
on the backstays, for each sky-sail-yard, including sail 
and gear, weighs about seven hundred pounds, and the 
leverage of a ton one hundred and sixty feet from the ful- 
crum must be very considerable. Latitude, 54° 20' south ; 
longitude, 64° 20' west. 

July 13 

All last night it blew a fresh breeze and we gradually fell 
away to leeward, and at two o'clock this morning the 
captain decided to abandon Le Maire and kept off for Cape 
St. John. When we went on deck after breakfast (it was 
too dark to see anything before eight o'clock) we were 
startled at the sight. Broadside on, and parallel with our 
course, lay the extreme eastern end of Staten Land, distant 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

not more than two miles, with the tiny, cosy harbor of St. 
John just abeam. So close to the land were we that we 
could easily see the stunted evergreens that covered the 
hills up to the snow-line, which is much higher here than 
towards the middle of the island, where the breakers seem 
to fiing their spray upon the fields of snow ; while high up 
on a rugged mountain side there stood an isolated, lonely 
pine-tree, bringing to mind those exquisite lines of Heine : 

" Ein fichtenbaum stet einsam, 
Im Norden auf kahler Hoh, 
In schliifert mit weisser decke, 
Um hiillete in eis and schnee. 

Er traumpt von einer Palme, 

Die fern im Morgenland ; 
Einsam und schweigend trauert, 

Auf brennender Felsenwand." 

Now that we had approached so closely we hoped to 
get some photographs of the hills, especially when the 
sun, bursting from a cloud on the horizon, threw his hori- 
zontal rays upon the distant peaks. But, alas ! they 
showed up as nothing but a blur upon the finder. St. 
John, comparatively speaking, looked like a snug, com- 
fortable little place, but hardly such a one as a man would 
voluntarily choose to winter in, as do a colony of hardy 
sealers. The harbor seems to be formed by a neck of 
land projecting out from the right-hand side of the en- 
trance, upon the verge of which we perceived the diminu- 
tive light-house which guides the rugged South Shetland 
seal-catchers into safety. On the port hand going in, over 
against the light-house, rises a lofty cone composed of a 
single huge crag, standing sentry-like over the safe harbor 
within ; while roundabout on all sides tower great, dark, 
scowling mountains and vast precipices, the harbor being 
in reality naught but a cleft in the hills, after the manner 

20I 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

of a Scandinavian fjord. Yet the wild beauty of the place 
enchants one, and long before we had lost sight of the 
little light-house I had acknowledged to my wife that, after 
all, the thought of a winter spent in St. John was not such 
a very dreadful one, for the fascination of Nature in her 
grander forms far outweighs bodily inconveniences ; it is 
safe to say that von Humboldt in the deep recesses of the 
Equatorian Andes and Hooker in the awful solitudes of 
the Himalayas often longed for even the rude comforts 
provided in a settlement like St. John. 

We looked in vain with the glasses for the little steamer 
which makes regular, monthly trips to the Falkland Islands 
and at times even to Montevideo ; but she was not visible, 
and was no doubt away on one of her voyages. A truly 
turbulent life in one sense this one on the little vessel, but 
hardly so dreary as the lives of the seal-fishers who winter 
at St. John, which is, I believe, the southernmost per- 
manent settlement on the globe, and from October to 
April penetrate deep into the Southern Ocean in pursuit of 
their livelihood. 

Two strange, natural formations attract the attention far 
out on Cape St. John. The first is a mass of gray rock 
perched upon the very brim of a vertical cliff, almost over- 
hanging the surf that boils furiously around it, bearing a 
striking resemblance to an ancient feudal castle ; and one 
can see, as it were, the high walls with heavy battlements, 
and the lofty crenellated towers of the massive edifice. 
The second object is another monolith so closely resem- 
bling the Sphinx that one starts on first catching sight of it, 
for it seems impossible that mere chance could produce so 
accurate a counterpart of the famous Egyptian monument. 

Well, we have seen Staten Land almost in its entirety ; 
and if we didn't have the satisfaction of passing through 
the Le Maire Straits, we went a third of the distance in 

202 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

last Sunday morning ; and we have beheld the cape and 
settlement of St. John, where the scenery is, if possible, 
even grander and more desolate than at the western end. 
How odd it is, by the way, if Cape St. Anthony, near the 
straits, should have been so called from the temptation 
that possesses mariners to pass through instead of going 
around the island, thereby often incurring great risk ! 

On issuing into the open sea we fell into a tide-rip caused 
by the swift currents meeting at the point of the land, this 
rip being at times so heavy as to fill the decks of large 
ships. A number of hail-squalls descended upon us here, 
and as the land at noontime had grown very dim, at that 
hour we had what I fear was our last glimpse of the sorrow- 
ful hills of Staten Land. 

We found a long swell outside, but not nearly as much 
as we had anticipated, though we are as yet under shelter 
of the land. As for the wind, it is now almost calm, the 
hour being three in the afternoon ; but there is nothing set 
above the topsails on account of frequent squalls of con- 
siderable violence. The men are now so heavily wrapped 
up in clothes as to resemble nothing so much as corpulent 
mummies. They have to waddle Instead of walk, and 
many of them have tied pieces of gunny sacks over their 
rubber boots. This, singularly enough, is a wonderful pro- 
tection against cold ; and they assert that if nothing else is 
handy, by simply pulling a pair of heavy socks over their 
boots their feet do not grow numb. It is strange that it 
should be so cold with the mercury no lower than 36° ; yet 
here are stout, hardy men who have to knock off work 
sometimes to beat some life into themselves when the mate 
isn't looking. My own clothes now weigh twenty-two 
pounds, or seventeen without the boots ; this includes three 
suits of underwear and a sheepskin coat with the wool on, 
just as it came from the fiank of the animal. Every one 

203 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

knows how the spectators rattle and shake at a football 
game in spite of thick wraps when the thermometer is no 
lower than 50° ; how much more penetrating it must be 
here, then, when the mercury is nearly twenty degrees 
lower, and when the atmosphere is charged with that bitter- 
ness peculiar to the air at sea in the higher latitudes ! 

It cannot be said that we have done particularly well so far 
on this voyage, for we have been nine weeks at sea this day 
and have only just pushed out into the Southern Ocean. I 
wonder how long it will be before we can point our jib-boom 
for the north star again? Latitude, 54° 50' south ; longi- 
tude, 63° 36' west. 

July 14 

Last night was an almost perfect one, with moonlight 
nearly as bright as sunshine and the sky absolutely free 
from clouds. About the hour of sunset we witnessed what, 
for spectacular effects, was perhaps the finest scenery that 
we have had yet. At four o'clock all the mists, etc., that 
sailors call muck had disappeared, disclosing in its entire 
length of fifty miles the south side of Staten Land. This 
consists altogether of jagged rocks and fierce, angry peaks 
shooting up three thousand feet above the sea. The eastern 
or St. John end of the island was wrapped in gloom and 
shadow, while the rest of the land swept superbly down 
toward the west, stretching away in ridges of wonderfully 
fantastic beauty, the peaks near the straits soaring up 
grandly against a rich crimson glare where the sun had 
sunk behind a rift in the clouds. Gradually, however, the 
light was diffused over the entire western heavens, changing 
from soft golden tints to royal purples and scarlets, which 
spread over the glorious mountains a cloud-mantle almost 
supernatural in its marvellous hues. Imperceptibly, how- 
ever, the bright colors began to wane and grow dull, shapes 

204 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

of dun vapor seemed to rise from the land, and at length 
darkness fell upon the deep and the mountains receded till 
engulfed in the blackness of night. 

The scene on deck at 8.30 was also one long to be cher- 
ished, with the joyous, rosy light of advancing day in the 
northeast, the full moon slowly falling, a huge golden ball, 
behind the western horizon, and the tall, violet pyramid of 
the Bell Mountain on Sierra del Fuego rising out of the 
sea fair and soft, far away in the northwest. Ah, no one 
knows what the real beauties of the sea are until he has 
made at least one deep-water voyage in a sailing ship ! 
The flying glimpse of the Atlantic that one catches from 
the deck of a steamer or the experiences of a midwinter 
voyage to the Mediterranean in a North German Lloyder 
gives one no true idea of what ocean life really is. No ; 
to comprehend the sea in all of its splendid phases one 
must live on it for months at a time ; for not till then can 
one fully appreciate that ' ' They that go down to the sea 
in ships, that do business in great waters ; these see the 
works of the Lord, and His wonders in the deep," 

Up to eleven o'clock this morning the weather was per- 
fect and we carried the top-gallant-sails without trouble ; 
we were heading our course southwest, and the sun looked 
down from a cloudless sky. As we went below at that 
hour we noticed a small bank dead ahead, but so insignifi- 
cant that I didn't think anything more about it until half 
an hour later, when, buried in the ice with Nansen, we be- 
came aware that it was growing very dark. The next 
second the ship heeled far over, and some one at the same 
instant cast off the spanker-halliards, the iron mast-hoops 
jingling noisily as the sail ran down. Of course we were 
on deck in another moment, and found that the wind had 
whipped around seven points and that a heavy squall had 
struck the ship aback ; the great sails were swelled out 

205 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

inboard against the masts and backstays, while snow and 
sleet hurtled through the air in cutting blasts. Luckily, 
the top-gallant-sails had been clewed up a quarter of an 
hour before ; but a large vessel in irons, even under short 
sail, in bad weather is a shocking sight. The captain was 
perfectly self-contained, however, and executed some rapid 
and precise manoeuvres, no one losing his head except the 
mate, who went bellowing around the decks till brought to 
by the skipper' s angry commands, ' ' Square that crojjick- 
yard ; get the spencer brailed up. Call all hands. Stop 
that noise and single reef the fore- and maintop-sails." 

Oh, well hast thou earned thy reputation, boisterous and 
treacherous Cape ! From bright skies and glorious sun- 
light we came in fifteen minutes to reefed topsails, sobbing 
decks, and flying snow, while the heavens were completely 
veiled in that puny cloud, which had expanded as though 
by the agency of some black art. "Here comes Cape 
Horn," said MacFoy ; and looking to windward, we 
beheld another sinister squall, dark with snow, bearing 
swiftly down upon us. A squall with snow in it can 
always be detected by its peculiarly black appearance. 
They rapidly increased in number and severity, until now, 
the middle of the afternoon watch, the wind seems to have 
settled down for a steady blow from somewhere between 
west and south. The glass is very unsteady at 29.25, 
5 P.M. The wind has increased to a fresh gale, while a 
heavy swell is rolling magnificently up from the southwest. 
This is the first time that we have seen this heavy sea, as 
heretofore it has been cut of? by Cape Horn itself. Every 
minute it seems to increase, and within forty-eight hours 
we will probably be surrounded by the huge rollers which 
have made this region so famous. Even now they are so 
large and steady that, as far as the apparent rise and fall is 
concerned when below, we might almost as well be in per- 

206 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

fectly smooth water. Our experience of heavy seas has 
been that the largest of them do not move rapidly, and at 
the present time the ship mounts so leisurely to their sum- 
mits that one cannot detect the motion. When below, it is 
only in the tremendous roll of the vessel as she mounts to 
the crests that one is conscious of the height of the seas. 

From existing indications we are going to make quite a 
good bit of easting during the next twenty-four hours, for 
our course now is south-southeast, and as there is a strong 
easterly current running ceaselessly here, southeast will be 
nearer the true course. At noon we were thirteen miles 
north of Cape Horn, but still considerably to the eastward 
of it. Latitude, 55° 46' south ; longitude, 65° 48' west. 

July 15 

Last evening we prepared for a dirty night, and we got 
it. As the captain and I were pacing the poop after sup- 
per, the moon then shining brightly in a clear sky, sud- 
denly, from a bank in the southwest, so low and thin as 
to be almost invisible, there appeared a streak of light. 
"Wasn't that a flash of lightning?" asked the captain. 
"I think it was," said I ; "it certainly looked like it." 
"H'm," said the skipper. Closely we watched the south- 
ern horizon, and within ten minutes perceived two more 
brilliant flashes. A more uncanny effect it would be diffi- 
cult to imagine ; for, except the insignificant stratum near 
the sea-line, no other cloud was visible in the heavens, and 
the vivid streaks produced a startling effect in the white 
moonlight. After a look at the glass, which stood at 29. 15, 
the captain called the second mate, who was on watch, and 
ordered the upper foretop-sail clewed up and a reef tied in the 
foresail ; the upper mizzentop-sail hasn't been set for some 
time, as it generally comes in when the cross-jack is hauled 
up. The wind at the moment was from the west, force 6, 

zo-j 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

a strong breeze, with that deep swell that seems to be as 
eternal in the Southern Ocean as the snows of Mount 
Everest. Quickly, though strangely imperceptibly, some 
small, windy-looking clouds grew and expanded over the 
heavens ; and from eight last evening until daylight this 
morning it was a night of furious squalls, thick snow and 
hail, and high seas. Throughout the twelve hours we 
were under a single-reefed maintop-sail, ditto foresail and 
main-sail and the spencer. During the fifteen or twenty 
minutes that the squalls lasted the wind blew with terrific 
force and shrieked like a thousand steam sirens in the rig- 
ging, and then would follow a light spell, in which we 
might have carried everything. 

Our first really hard squall came at 9.30, in the mate's 
watch. It was accompanied with a sweeping snow-storm 
that drove in great drifts across the decks, the ship stand- 
ing up like a church against the blasts and sliding com- 
paratively dry over the big seas that came piling toward 
us out of the gloom, invisible till their foaming tops flashed 
out of the darkness to windward. It was a grand, wild 
scene, and as the heavier pufis went ripping through the 
shrouds with a peculiar scream, I thought, as I looked at 
the driving snow and the darkness and the raging ocean, 
that the Dusk of the Gods had come upon us. This squall 
lasted fully thirty minutes, and so heavy was the fall of 
snow that it took the watch some little time to shovel it 
overboard. 

All through the night we were afiflicted with these un- 
welcome visitors, variety being afforded by hail, which fell 
to the size of marrowfat pease, while along the lee alley- 
way, as that part of the poop is called between the cabin- 
house and the rail, crouched the forms of the seamen, for 
they are compelled to stay aft every night now, ready at an 
instant's call, and not coiled away napping under the top- 

2o8 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

gallant forecastle. The helmsman, too, was kept busy, for 
every squall seemed to take us aback more or less, and the 
air rang with the voice of the officer of the watch, " Put 
your wheel up, there !" 

It had never been our lot to witness so dismal a scene as 
that disclosed to us at a quarter-past eight this morning. 
A squall had just passed over us, and we were at the mo- 
ment in a sickly calm, with a high, greasy sea, which broke 
sluggishly at intervals like frothing oil ; the decks and 
weather-side of the masts and spars were covered inch 
deep with the wet, clammy snow that had just fallen, the 
canvas was flapping loudly against the masts in the great 
heaving rolls, and that miserable, leaden-hued struggle was 
passing between the breaking day and the wan, gibbous 
moon showing between the ragged clouds, which casts so 
wretched and melancholy a light over all objects. A more 
oppressive scene it would be impossible to picture, and it 
was the moment best suited to him determined upon end- 
ing forever his earthly career ; while, as if to increase the 
desolate aspect, an immense albatross, nearly white with 
age, flew circling around the ship, driving before him the 
flock of pigeons that hovers continuously near us. 

A rather distressing thought is that we are now well 
within the limit of ice, and that every degree farther south 
renders more probable the presence of some of these off- 
spring of the Antarctic Ice- King. This is offset, however, 
by the fact that most of the ice is seen more to the east- 
ward of the Horn, and that it is usually not at all thick 
during the winter season. February is the worst month 
for those huge ice islands which render navigation in the 
Southern Ocean so hazardous an undertaking. Fortu- 
nately, at the summer season actual darkness off the Horn 
doesn't last more than a couple of hours. 

The temperature has fallen, too, and to-day reached the 
14 209 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

freezing point of fresh water, sea-water congealing at about 
28°. To our surprise, the sun showed himself at noon, 
and though the horizon was bad, we got an approximately 
good sight, which showed that the orb was only 11° 
high, and that we were a degree south of Cape Horn and 
fifty miles east of it. Latitude, 56° 58' south ; longitude, 
66° west. 

July 16 

Hove to in a heavy gale. Cape Horn in sight, bearing at 
noon east by north distant about fifteen miles ! Yesterday 
afternoon it was very mild as far as wind was concerned, 
and I went down on the main-deck and did a lot of pump- 
ing to make up for the days lost through bad weather, 
when it was dangerous to try it. From the main-deck the 
seas looked infinitely larger than from the poop, the differ- 
ence in elevation of six or seven feet making an immense 
difference in their apparent height. All through the early 
part of the night it was fine, and we set the upper mizzen- 
top-sail and the spanker. By the way, it is remarkable that 
a ship-rigged vessel will steer well with hardly any after- 
canvas set. For instance, for some time previously the 
only sail on the mizzen was the lower topsail ; while for- 
ward were a jib, foretop-mast stay-sail, both topsails, and 
reefed foresail. 

The squalls, too, eased up as the moon rose, and up 
to 2 A.M. the weather was fine. At midnight, though, 
a sinister movement was noticed in the aneroid, the 
needle rising rapidly from 29. Every one who knows 
Cape Horn understands what this signifies with a westerly 
breeze, — it means a gale of wind. True to precedent, 
when we went on deck after breakfast, the ship being then 
on the port tack, it was breezing rapidly. After each 
squall it blew harder and harder, with proportionally in- 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

creasing sea, and the skipper ventured the opinion that we 
were going to see a Cape Horn " snorter." At ten o'clock 
the main-sail had to come in, the ship from being driven 
too hard taking in large quantities of water, especially from 
the lee side. So both watches were called, and it was a 
spirited scene as the sturdy fellows stretched along the 
deck, heedless of the seas that thundered aboard every 
few minutes, while they manned the weather main-clew- 
garnet with a chorus that rose above the gale. Brave ? A 
more courageous lot of men than Cape Horn foremast 
hands do not exist ! 

Here the old man thought he'd take a hand, though 
everything was running smoothly ; so he hopped down on 
deck, sprang up on the main-hatch, and in thirty seconds 
so great was the distraction that the men didn't know 
whether they were hauling on the main-buntlines or the jib- 
downhaul. The skipper commenced in what was for him 
a mild exhortation to ' ' Pull away lively, now ; pull away 
there." But the men were thoroughly drenched by this 
time, and the teeth of the weaker were beginning to chatter ; 
for of what use are oil-skins to a man in two or three feet of 
water, when he is constantly tripping on the slippery deck 
and flying headlong as the ship rolls ? By and by the 
skipper began to swear, and then it was all up with every- 
thing ; five minutes later he was in a whirling cyclonic pas- 
sion. He fairly jigged upon the hatch in his frenzy, and 
thumped his chest with his right fist as he clung with his 
left to the lee lower maintop-sail-sheet, still urging the men 
to " pull away." At length his temper so flew away with 
him that he seemed to strangle, and the last sentence we 
heard was, " Catch hold of any d thing and haul on it." 

In spite of him, however, both main-sail and foresail were 
hauled up in an hour and a half, the ship being then under 
lower topsails and spencer, and the captain announced his 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

intention of wearing round after dinner, adding, ' ' You 
could see Cape Horn now if it wasn' t for the snow. ' ' 

All this time the wind had been increasing, and by the 
time that dinner was over it had risen to a full gale. 
" Land on the lee beam," sung out the lynx-eyed mate at 
one o'clock. We looked ; and there, down to leeward, 
we perceived the most famous promontory in the world, 
the terrible Cape Horn itself, smothered in gloom, rising 
dimly out of the sea about fifteen miles away. " Brail up 
that spencer and stand by to wear ship. " " Ay, ay, sir, ' ' 
cheerfully, for a hot meal had put life into the men. And 
now there followed a spectacle that it will be impossible 
ever to forget. The wind was roaring from the southwest 
a violent gale, accompanied with tremendous squalls blow- 
ing with inconceivable fury, swallowing us up in blinding 
snow. The ocean had assumed a terrible appearance, 
white as a snow-drift to windward ; while at intervals we 
could see the breaking crest of some immense sea, towering 
high above the rest in his grand and stately progress. The 
helm was then put hard up, the main- and cross-jack-yards 
were squared, and we fell away dead before the wind. 

For the next fifteen minutes a scene was enacted that ab- 
solutely defied a description worthy of it. The huge, 
shaggy seas came rushing along astern, full sixty feet from 
crest to trough ; and when close by, if you wanted to follow 
their progress, you had to throw your head back as though 
looking up at a mountain peak, while they shook their 
white manes like wild horses, and it seemed as if they must 
crash over the stern. But no, the ship rode them superbly, 
and when she reached the crest of one, and we looked deep 
down into that dark-green, foam-streaked valley astern, we 
caught our breath as the billows ran under us and fell 
thundering upon the main-deck forward. The sight of the 
great ship with nothing set but the three lower topsails, 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

flying before the gale, almost choked you with emotion. 
It was grand, it was fearfully sublime. It was the apothe- 
osis of the power and majesty of God. 

An albatross, too, in a storm is a wonderful sight. No 
matter how furious the gale, no matter how fierce the 
terrific, hurricane squalls of Cape Horn, the great bird 
soars up against the blast grim and serene. Then wheel- 
ing, he comes sweeping down on the wings of the gale at 
a speed so tremendous that it cannot be less than eighty or 
even ninety miles an hour, when, describing a low but im- 
mense circle, with the tip of his lee wing just brushing the 
tops of the giant seas, he again takes his flight upward 
against the storm. No living creature conveys the idea of 
boundless freedom so perfectly as the King of Space, the 
Wandering Albatross. 

By two o'clock in the afternoon we had the relieving 
tackles on the tiller, and when darkness came after a sickly, 
pallid sunset, it found us hove to in a mountainous sea, 
with the same angry squalls yelling in savage, ruthless glee 
over this desert ocean. Latitude, 56° 12' south ; longitude, 
67° 24' west. 

July 17 

Last night the gale diminished somewhat ; but at eleven 
o'clock the chain topping-lift of the spencer-gaff carried 
away, and we had to rig a makeshift with a tackle until to- 
day. 

In yesterday's log I forgot to mention an incident that 
happened which came very nearly being a lamentable acci- 
dent. After we had worn around, at about thirty minutes 
past one, while some of the men were hauling taut the 
weather forebrace, we were boarded by an enormous sea 
that came whooping over the weather-side. The whole of 
the starboard watch, including the second mate, were haul- 

213 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

ing on the brace when the sea broke on board and fell 
directly upon them. I never saw anything Hke the scene 
that followed. The men absolutely disappeared from view. 
It was as though they had gone through the deck. Only 
once before had we seen so great a volume of water on a 
ship's deck, and that was during our first voyage when we 
were hove down to the turnbuckles in the North Atlantic. 
Yesterday it was, at the very least, two feet deep on the 
level, and it filled the galley and carpenter-shop, putting out 
the fires in the donkey-boiler, and this through the lee doors. 
During all this time we looked in vain for the sight of a 
human being. Not one was to be seen on the main-deck, 
and the water was dashing up twenty or thirty feet into the 
air at. every heave. Gradually it began to run off, and now 
and then a clumsy, yellow bundle loomed up out of a snarl 
of ropes, sat up for a second, and then went whizzing away 
to leeward. Again a man would gain his feet and clutch 
frantically at belaying-pins ; but before he could support 
himself his legs would slide from under him, and he would 
be swept into the water-ways like a cork in a sluice. 

When all but a few inches of water had run off, and it 
was deep only in the lee scuppers, we perceived a knot of 
men away aft wedged between the bitts and the rail not 
far from the cabin bulkhead, entangled in a fearful snarl of 
gear. So tightly were they packed away that at first it 
seemed as though there were only two men there ; but one 
by one they crawled apart till three half-drowned sailors sat 
wabbling on the deck, and then we saw that another luck- 
less creature was lying prone in the scuppers. Slowly and 
painfully he got his legs under him, and, waiting for a lurch, 
with an effort reached his feet. It was Mr. Rarx, one of 
the most powerful men on board, and he was gasping for 
breath. It seems that they had all been swept aft together, 
and all were badly used up, especially Mr. Rarx, who 

214 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

formed the base of the wedge. He says that he was com- 
pletely under water for a good deal more than a minute. 

We are beginning to regard deep-water sailors as little 
short of heroes. Indeed, they seem to me far more valiant 
than the battalions of soldiery that are hurled nowadays 
against little bands of savages. From 50° to 50° they and 
the dark cavern in which they live are soaking wet ; they 
have no time to change their clothes, and no dry garments 
to put on if they had, for often, no sooner have the watch 
below kicked off their boots, actually filled to the brim with 
salt-water, than comes the cry, " All hands reef the maintop- 
sail," and when that is done, " Haul up the main-sail" rings 
out, and there are two hours gone from their watch below. 
There is no such thing as throwing of? their coats or even 
oil-skins when they turn in ; nor would it be advisable in a 
leaky forecastle like this, with half an inch of water on the 
floor shooting up in their faces. Yet look at these men 
as they haul on the braces in a gale of wind, hardly able 
to keep their feet. Never a word of complaint at the 
weather have I heard yet. Calm and unmoved in the 
storms of spray and snow, they sing out as heartily as ever, 
grin good-naturedly up at the poop where we are standing 
dry and comfortable, and face the crest of a sea that rattles 
against them as if it were a summer shower. The more we 
see of forecastle life the more difficult is it to understand 
why men ever sliip before the mast for a Cape Horn voyage. 

It is pleasant to think that that wretched man Goggins 
was washing about in his room, too, — pleasant, because he 
continues to drive and haze the men down here when they 
are striving to do their utmost under such conditions. 
When he awoke last night in the middle watch he found 
several inches of water on the floor of his room, and he is 
wondering where it came from. Indeed, we had a shower- 
bath ourselves last night, for part of a sea fell on the poop, 

215 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

ran aft against the wheel-house when the bows rose and 
then recoiled into our after-window, which was open, 
drenching that portion of our room. 

Steam is kept up continuously in the donkey-boiler now, 
as the men are getting pretty well used up from exposure 
and the immense amount of making and shortening of sail 
that goes on continuously. Captain Scruggs believes in 
taking every single point of advantage in the wind, and 
shakes out a reef at the least indication of a lull, each time, 
of course, necessitating the mastheading of the yard ; 
though eventually even he realized that the men were 
wearing out, and now the donkey does all the heavy hoist- 
ing. Many people think that the engine does all the trim- 
ming of yards, etc. , during a voyage, but with the excep- 
tion of the passage of the Horn, it is seldom ever in use at 
sea, and never for sail-trimming. The chief use to which 
a donkey is put is in loading and discharging when in port 
and heaving in the anchor. 

Well, the wind now, at 3 P.m., is at west, force 8, and 
we have set a reefed maintop-sail and spencer. We have 
drifted about southeast by east true since yesterday, some- 
times hove to, sometimes headreaching through a heavy 
sea. The elements are somewhat more placid, and I must 
not bring this day' s journal to a close without extolling my 
wife' s bravery during the foul weather, for her courage was 
remarkable. Only those who have been to sea in a sailing 
ship whose main-deck is but seven feet above the water can 
appreciate what a whole gale of wind means under such 
circumstances. Latitude, 57° south ; longitude, 65° 45' 
west. 

July 18 

Land was reported on the weather-beam this afternoon. 
We think that it is Barneveld Island, about thirty miles 

216 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

northeast of Cape Horn, and it bore, when first sighted, 
northwest. We didn't do anything at all during the last 
twenty-four hours but seesaw up and down, north and 
southeast, with the wind at southwest, and we were sur- 
prised by a calm last night from six until twelve o'clock, 
with a comparatively high thermometer, — 41° at the latter 
hour, — so that the skipper looked for a northerly wind 
during this morning. But no such luck for us ; daylight 
saw us under a reefed maintop-sail (we had set the main- 
top-gallant at midnight) with a moderate gale from the 
westward, though the sea was quite smooth. We have 
entirely lost the long southwesterly roll, and it is astonish- 
ing how that swell does go down if you are only a little 
to the eastward of the Cape. For instance, suppose a vessel 
to be in 57° south and 68° west, she is almost certain to 
have this big heave ; but if in 66° west and the same latitude 
she will be almost entirely free from it ; at least, this has been 
our experience. 

Great agitation pervaded the ship aft to-day when the 
discovery was made that the pumps had not been working 
properly for twenty-four hours. In heavy weather the 
' ' Higgins' ' has to be pumped out every two hours on ac- 
count of a leak near the rudder-head, although the major- 
ity of wooden sailing vessels have to man the pumps every 
watch in a seaway, for they all leak in bad weather. Some- 
thing was wrong with the plunger, I believe, and the pumps 
have been useless for a whole day, unknown to any one, 
which in itself seems remarkable, though I must say that 
the decks have been so full of water that it has been very 
hard to tell whether a stream was coming up from below 
or not. Therefore both men and donkey have been alter- 
nately pumping without result, and when the carpenter 
sounded the well this noon, lo ! there were two and a half 
feet of water in the vessel, which means nearly twenty 

217 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

thousand gallons, or about six hundred barrels. By using 
both sides of the pumps, however, the engine had them 
sucking in an hour, doing sixty revolutions to the minute. 
There was a violent scene, though, when the old man 
learned of the affair, and a still more turbulent half-hour 
followed while the plunger was being repaired. 

Here, in the bad, wet weather, for it has been raining 
for forty-eight hours, this ship is extremely uncomfortable 
and disagreeable below, and the most slovenly one that I 
have ever seen. To begin with, it is very dark, for the 
skylights are absurdly small, and boards have to be se- 
cured on their weather-sides to prevent a repetition of the 
river Plate incident, so that the gloom of the interior is 
that of a hole in the ground. However, this doesn't 
count, for we expected it. The after-cabin is a rather un- 
pleasant spot, by reason of a so' wester or two, a dripping 
black oil-skin, several pair of wet woollen wrist-protectors, 
a few greasy magazines, a chart or two, and a couple of 
camp-chairs all continually sliding about the floor, making 
locomotion an extremely hazardous undertaking. But, 
upon approaching the forward or dining cabin, a spectacle 
meets the eye which would shake the heart of the stoutest 
landsman. In the forward end, in a recess, stands the 
stove, stayed with iron rods ; while surrounding it on three 
sides is a permanent aggregation of various objectionable 
articles, perfectly appalling. The heater is completely 
smothered at all times in ancient, wet garments of the skip- 
per's, almost in a state of fermentation, suspended on wires, 
so that the stove can hardly be seen. At dinner to-day the 
following disreputable articles of clothing hung before the 
fire, dank and mildewed : two pairs of aged trousers, two 
waist-coats, three coats, one overcoat, two mufflers, one 
pair of knitted gloves, one handkerchief, and two pairs of 
socks. From these garments there issued a pecuHarly ob- 

218 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

noxious, thin steam, through which a yellow lamp glowed 
unhealthily. 

Below, at the base of the stove, and surrounding it as 
with a chevaux-de-frise, were two pairs of rubber boots, 
ditto leather shoes, ditto felt slippers for boots, two dishes 
filled with the cat's half-devoured food, no one knows how 
old, a wash-tub half filled with soaking sheets, a bucket, 
and a wooden box nearly full of ashes, upon which re- 
posed a coffee-pot. And when to all this is added the 
humidity of this region, which is so dense that moisture 
condenses on the walls, and the fact that the mizzen-mast- 
coat leaks, covering several square feet of the floor with 
water, it will be conceded that the interior of this vessel is 
distinctly disreputable. Indeed, we never attempt to sit 
and read anywhere else than in our own room. Nor are 
the dishes what they should be, and I often find a clot 
of coagulated soup in the ladle from yesterday's repast ; 
this latter is, of course, the fault of the steward, though 
the best of servants will grow careless if they are not 
watched. 

Then the mate is extremely unclean, so much so that 
even Mr. Rarx said a day or two ago that he was the 
dirtiest man whom he had even seen in a ship's cabin. 
He never washes his face and hands to come to the table, 
both of which are streaked with soot, lard oil, and good- 
ness knows what else. The captain is considerably better 
in this respect, but his temper seems to be more uncon- 
trollable than ever, and he shouts at the steward and Sam- 
mie as though they were on the foretop-sail-yard in a gale 
of wind. He seems to consider it a personal affront every 
time that the men come aft on Saturday nights to buy 
things from the slop-chest, which he throws at them with 
scant ceremony. Last night "Long John" Pettersen 

asked him for a pair of No. lo rubber boots in his cowed, 

219 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

frightened way. " I ain't got no tens," cried the skipper ; 
"here's nines; take 'em and get out"; and he cast the 
boots at John, who promptly dodged, and they struck the 
stove with a great, clattering din. 

I will, no doubt, be accused of inhumanity in taking my 
wife to sea in such a vessel as this, but we had not the least 
notion that she would prove so different from what we sup- 
posed her to be, and few persons would suspect that such 
things would occur aboard of a ship which looked so neat 
and trim in the New York docks. Our previous expe- 
rience at sea, we have since discovered, was not of any use 
to us as a guide as to what we might expect here. Indeed, 
in the worst weather off the Cape of Good Hope the 
" Mandalore's" cabin, with its brightly polished open- 
grate and shining bird's-eye maple panelling, would not 
have been discreditable to a well-found yacht. Latitude, 
5^° 14' south ; longitude, 66° west. 

July 19 

Hail, mighty sun ! Welcome, radiant, glorious monarch ! 
We saw the luminous orb for ten minutes at mid-day, mark- 
ing an epoch, for events off Cape Horn date from the last 
time that the sun was seen. When day broke this morn- 
ing, behold ! the sky was clear and everything presaged at 
least two hours of bright sunshine. No sooner, however, 
did the orb show signs of appearing above the horizon 
than a cloud-bank arose in the west which proved to be the 
mother of a procession of squalls which covered the sky 
for the rest of the day, bar a few minutes at noon. But how 
we did rejoice for even a glimpse of the heavenly body ! 
For days we had dwelt in darkness and twilight, and when 
we caught sight of the golden disk again it was like the 
face of an old friend. No one who has not experienced it 
can imagine what the gloom of Cape Horn is like even at 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

mid-day. It has doubtless somewhat the effect of the dark- 
ness of the Polar seas, which, it is said, kills more men 
than frost and starvation. Practically, throughout the year 
the heavens in this region are wrapped up in a pall of cloud 
so dense and low as to feel like an increased atmospheric 
pressure ; and unless one's spirits are as elastic as rubber 
the mind must succumb to the dreary influence of this end- 
less waste of gray ocean. It is oppressive beyond the 
power of words ; and so great is the solitude that it is diffi- 
cult to believe that we are still on the earth and not floating 
upon the ocean of another planet. 

"So lonely 'twas, that God himself 
Scarce seemed there to be." 

The sun's altitude at noon was only 8° 42', so that he 
was only about sixteen diameters above the horizon ; but 
notwithstanding, all hands hailed him with glad paeans, 
and deep and mournful was the wailing when he withdrew. 
At eleven o'clock, while we were reading below, the skip- 
per called down to know if we didn' t want to see a regular 
old-fashioned squall. So up we went, and upon issuing 
from the companion-way were almost literally blown over 
by a heavy gust. The ship was hove down till the sea 
flowed over the lee rail thick and smooth and dark, like the 
water on the verge of a cataract ; the wind howled and 
screeched overhead ; spray fell in blinding sheets ; while 
the snow was positively overpowering and almost smoth- 
ered us when we looked to windward. The ship for some 
time had dragged a double-reefed maintop-sail, and it was 
every stitch that she could stand. All through the day we 
were bombarded by these squalls, and by three in the after- 
noon the wind had once more increased to a fresh gale, with 
a wicked, breaking sea which frequently broke on the poop 
itself. 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

How little, how pitifully little departure we made in the 
last week ! On Tuesday, six days ago, we rounded Cape 
St. John, and now we are only a degree farther west ! I 
should think it was hard to make westing off the Horn. 
Call it forty miles in a week, for the degrees of longitude 
are scarcely thirty-five miles long in this latitude. Six 
miles of westing a day ! Speaking of the length of de- 
grees, though, it is remarkable how much farther south of 
the line the Horn seems (56° south) than 56° north seems 
north of it. For instance, the fifty-sixth northerly parallel 
passes between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and is not very 
far north of Hamburg ; yet but few persons would suppose 
that, roughly speaking, these cities were in the same rela- 
tive latitude as the southern extremity of South America. 

Last evening, just before dark, a sail was sighted about 
ten miles to leeward, and was there still this morning. It 
was a ship, and we conjectured that she was the " Dowes" 
until the glasses showed that she had a standing spanker- 
gaff, which made her a foreigner. Perhaps she is the demon 
Frenchman ; may she approach no nearer. 

One of the men at the wheel. Jack Michaels, whispered 
to me this morning, " Say, was that land the Diego 
Ramirez we saw yesterday?" And when told that we 
were still east of Cape Horn, the poor fellow ejaculated, 
' ' Oh, my God !' ' so earnestly and sorrowfully that it spoke 
whole volumes for what the men are suffering in the leaky 
forecastle. Two men are constantly at the wheel now, and 
even when the tiller is lashed and we are hove to, the law 
compels one man to stand with his hands on the spokes as 
though still steering, so as to be ready in case of accident. 
Well, it looks as though we were going to have a worse 
night than ever for sleeping ; last night we got only three 
hours of rest. Latitude, 56° 54' south ; longitude, 65° 
west. 

222 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

July 20 

"The ship drove fast, loud roared the blast, 
And southward aye we fled." 

It came on to blow very hard indeed yesterday after- 
noon at three o'clock, just as we had finished writing, and 
at four it became necessary to haul up the main-sail and 
foresail, though both were reefed. When the skipper sung 
out, " Clew up the main-sail," I think that it was blowing 
harder than we ever saw it at sea. The captain said that 
there was more wind the other day in sight of Cape Horn ; 
but I think that this was only to contradict. Whether or 
no, it blew a fearful gale, though the full strength didn't 
last more than three hours, with, for a while, the worst snow 
and hail that we have had yet. The ocean seethed ; big 
seas swept the decks fore and aft like cataracts every five 
minutes, and the ship, with nothing showing but the lower 
topsails, was bowed down before the blasts like a palm-tree 
in a hurricane. We thought that we were surely going to 
lose the main-sail through the fault of the wretched mate, 
who is of no use whatever in bad weather. It is necessary 
to observe extreme caution in hauling up any of the courses 
in a gale of wind, for the tack and sheet must be eased 
off just so, in order that both they and the clew-garnets 
shall be perfectly taut until the clews are right up to the 
yard. If not, the chance of losing the sails is exceedingly 
good. Well, the miserable man, in the midst of a tearing 
puff, let the main-tack get away from him. Instantly there 
arose a frightful slatting, and we expected to see the strong, 
new canvas whipped into ribbons, while the great, ninety- 
foot mainyard buckled and bent almost like a coach-whip, 
I hope never to witness such a sight again. The old man's 
state while this was going on must be left to the imagina- 
tion ; and when a sea swept over the side, carrying almost 
every man on the clew-garnets and buntlines into the 

223 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

scuppers, we feared that his reason was going. After a 
hard struggle, though, the gaskets were put on the main- 
sail, and then the foresail had to come in. Here the mate, 
very properly, found something else to do, and Mr. Rarx, 
calm and perfect master of himself, slacked away the tack 
first ; and when the weather-side had been hauled up, he 
did the same with the sheet, without the least show of ex- 
ertion ; he is a splendid seaman. 

At this moment I stepped into the wheel-house to look 
at the aneroid, and found the needle actually jumping back 
and forth from 29. 10 to 29. 20, with a quick jerk like the 
second-hand of a clock. This is known as "pumping" 
when observed in a mercurial barometer, and occurs most 
frequently during cyclones, the cause being sudden changes 
in the velocity, and, consequently, force, of the wind. It 
is interesting to note that if a barometer is hung against a 
wall where the wind will blow steadily upon it at a rate of 
about thirty feet per second the height of the barometer is 
perceptibly increased. Once before we observed this pump- 
ing of the barometer, which happened on the P. and O. 
steamer ' ' Khedive, ' ' in the Bay of Biscay, when the glass 
stood at 28.64. This is, of course, a very low reading, but 
it is often eclipsed during tropical cyclones ; indeed, not 
long ago the British steamer "Foreland," at New York, 
from Hull, reported the barometer at 28. 10 to the eastward 
of the Banks during a January passage. 

At five yesterday afternoon the force of the wind was 
greatest, and the surface of the ocean smoked, and we 
couldn't see the jib-boom for the spume, which flew through 
the air like steam ; yet in the very eye of the storm the 
gay little Cape pigeons darted about like sparrows in a 
summer shower. They seemed to find a deal to eat on the 
surface, and their method of feeding was this : At the in- 
stant that an unusually heavy sea passed they would swoop 

224 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

down into the hollow where it was almost calm, snatch a 
few mouthfuls of whatever they found, and as the next 
huge sea rushed at them, at the very second before they 
were buried in the hissing crest, they extended their wings 
to the utmost, the wind struck beneath them, and without 
any perceptible effort they rose against the gale, only to 
drop again in a few moments, and repeat the operation. It 
was really very pretty manoeuvering, and compelled admi- 
ration at the ease and certainty with which the little crea- 
tures handled themselves even in the heaviest gusts. 

Alas, the poor sailors ! They have been continuously 
wet now for more than ten days. It is true that from 8 
A. M. till eight in the evening there is a fire burning in a 
small stove in the forecastle ; but the atmosphere is so 
extremely humid that the heat doesn't seem to affect the 
forecastle or the men's clothes. Indeed, it is a grewsome 
sight to look into that apartment as I did the other night 
at seven o'clock. The port watch were below lying in 
their bunks with faces toward the stove, which was all but 
concealed by dripping, steaming garments swinging madly 
in the heavy rolls, water was splashing high up on the 
grimy walls from the floor, while a dense, rank vapor per- 
vaded the place, through which the stove glowed dully, 
like a headlight in a fog. Many of the men are now 
afflicted with the most grievous perhaps of all the ills with 
which sailors are cursed in cold, bad weather, — the dreaded 
sea-boils. These harassing sores are due to the friction of 
oil-skins and other clothes upon the wrists and neck, con- 
tinually drenched with salt-water, though the bad condition 
of sailors' blood generally is doubtless responsible for the 
dreadful state of the wrists of the sufferers. It is singular 
that mere friction combined with cold sea-water should 
produce such results. Sea-boils or salt-water-boils, as they 
are sometimes called, are exquisitely painful and very sensi- 
,5 225 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

tive to any rubbing, and they must be bandaged and poul- 
ticed until it is time for the lancing, upon which a sort of 
core, like a short, thick piece of sinew, is laid bare, which 
must be seized and plucked out. Two of these boils as 
large as plums will lay a man up ; and any attempt to 
work him hard generally results in a high fever and his 
bunk for several days. Imagine what the suffering of 
sailors must be off Cape Horn when these boils are added 
to fatigue, cold, loss of sleep from frequent calls of all 
hands, and to the lethargy that comes from exposure. I 
repeat again, why do men ship before the mast? There 
are other things to do, and even breaking stones on a high- 
way is to my mind infinitely preferable. Notwithstanding 
everything said to the contrary, the life of a Cape Horn 
foremast hand is the life of a beast. It is hard, wearing, 
and bitter beyond words ; and when are added the kicks 
aijd the blows from belaying-pins and knuckle-dusters that 
the men are usually served with on American ships by way 
of dessert, it is difificult to believe that human beings can 
survive such privations and sufferings. Poor fellows ! 
They stumble about the decks with drawn, haggard faces 
and two or three with staring eyes. We watched one this 
forenoon (it was Louis Eckers) trying to put a watch- 
tackle-strop on the lee lower maintop-sail-brace ; the job 
amounted to nothing more than standing on the bitts and 
twisting a bit of rope around the brace ; but so weak and 
stiffened was he that another man had to be called in his 
stead. Some of the younger fellows are still in pretty 
good condition, such as Broadhead, Charley, and Olsen ; 
but most of the older men are practically half dead. I 
think the most remarkable of all of a sailor's characteristics 
is the rapidity with which they forget their hardships ; for 
let Jack get up into the balmy Trades again and all of his 
misery and pain vanish, the memory of what he has but 

326 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

just endured fades away, and when he has been ashore for 
a week at the end of the voyage, he is quite ready again to 
face the snow-thickened gales of Cape Horn. 

All hopes of a rapid passage have now been abandoned, 
for we have been ten weeks at sea to-day and are not yet 
around Cape Horn. It will be recalled that we were in the 
longitude of the Cape a few days ago, but heaven only 
knows when we can make up what we have lost since then. 
Our distance east of the Horn now is not more than seventy- 
five miles, and it does seem remarkable that we cannot 
make those few miles of westing ; and we see now why all 
the sailing directions say, ' ' Whatever you do, make west- 
ing ! -tnake zvesthig f ' Even though the wind is at south- 
west, as we have had it almost constantly, one would think 
that by standing well to the southward a ship could get a lay 
up past the Cape ; but what with a two-knot easterly cur- 
rent, two points of leeway, and 22° of easterly variation, 
not to mention her being seven points off the wind under 
such short canvas, it is actually impossible. A yacht might 
do it, for she could go to windward under a storm-try-sail 
to an appreciable extent ; but if a square- rigger holds her 
own and makes no easting on the port tack with the wind 
blowing hard from the southwest off Cape Horn, she is 
doing very well. 

At five this morning the wind backed to south and hope 
glowed warm in the hearts of the men ; but it didn't take 
it long to shift back again to its old quarter, between south- 
west and west-southwest, and the old man now makes no 
bones about our being real bona fide Jonahs. It is growing 
colder, too, the noon temperature being 31°, though no 
lower at night, but the wind is as cutting and clammy and 
dank as the breath of an iceberg. Some ship-masters, on 
account of the prolonged head gales and seas of Cape Horn, 
prefer the Good Hope voyage when bound from North 

227 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Atlantic ports to California or British Columbia ; but while 
the winds are fair in the Southern Ocean on this course, the 
distance is so much greater that it is doubtful whether or 
not there is any advantage in it. The latest example is the 
case of the British ship ' ' Wasdale, ' ' which reached San 
Francisco not very long ago, one hundred and sixty-five 
days from London via Good Hope, having sailed the 
enormous distance of twenty-four thousand five hundred 
and twenty-six miles ; the Horn voyage averages three 
weeks less in time than the above and six thousand miles 
less in distance. The ' ' Wasdale' ' must be a smart ship to 
cover nearly twenty-five thousand miles in that time. 

It seems very odd that we have as yet met no homeward- 
bounders, as we have been several times right in their track ; 
the skipper says, however, that there are doubtless a dozen 
vessels within a radius of fifty miles, all bound to the west- 
ward. Latitude, 57° 25' south ; longitude, 60° 5' west. 

July 21 

' ' Land close aboard on the lee-quarter, sir, ' ' was the start- 
ling information that the mate called down the companion- 
way about daylight, as we sat down to breakfast this morning. 
It didn't take the captain more than three or four seconds 
to reach the deck, and we heard him cry savagely, ' ' All 
hands wear ship ; lively now, lively. ' ' And none too soon, 
for there on the lee beam lay Hermite Island only three or 
four miles away. This is one of a cluster known as the 
Hermite Islands, being seven in number altogether ; they 
form the culminating group of the Tierra del Fuegian 
archipelago, of which Cape Horn is the southernmost. We 
must have made more westing than the captain had esti- 
mated, for he had just remarked that we ought to see the 
Horn again at nine o'clock. Of course we wore as quickly 
as the stiffened arms of the men would permit, and for quite 

228 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

a long while, in a dismal rain, we ran down parallel with 
these dreary shores, on which we would have struck had 
daylight been a couple of hours later. If our position of 
yesterday wasn't a false one, we did phenomenally well 
during the past twenty-four hoars, for the land that we first 
saw this morning, and which the skipper recognized at once, 
is eighty miles west of yesterday's position. But, good 
gracious ! we were at noon to-day within eight miles of 
where we were last Friday in the heavy gale ! The latitude 
was exactly the same and we were eight miles farther west. 
Eight miles in five days. How does that sound ? And 
every day of it fight, fight, fight against head-winds vary- 
ing from a moderate to a whole gale. In truth, the famous 
Cape weather is being administered in heroic doses. Per- 
sonally, I don't mind it in the least ; weeks or even months 
of it, if necessary, would be quite immaterial to me; but the 
interior of the cabin is so abominably uncomfortable for my 
wife, bar our own room, that for this reason I want to get 
out of it as quickly as possible. This gloomy weather, too, 
is dreadfully trying for her, as it is too dark to read below 
without a lamp at even the brightest part of the day. 

At ten we opened out Cape Spencer, a magnificent head- 
land at the southern end of Hermite Island, and an hour 
later sighted Horn Island for the second time, bearing 
northeast true, distant eighteen miles. It was the first 
really good look we had had at the Horn, and the world- 
famous rock presented quite a formidable appearance, being 
five hundred feet in height, though lacking the majestic 
dignity of Cape Spencer, which lies twenty-five miles west- 
northwest of it. Indeed, there is no particular landmark 
about it to cause Horn Island to stand forth from the sur- 
rounding crags. Many people imagine that the Cape was 
so called from its resemblance to a horn, but this is a mis- 
take. The proper name is Cape Hoorn, which was given 

229 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

it in 1616 by the Dutch navigator Schouten, in honor of 
his native town in Flanders. On the other hand, False 
Cape Horn, about fifty miles northwest of the true cape, at 
the extremity of Hardy Peninsula, bears a remarkable 
likeness to an inverted curved cornucopia, and also a re- 
semblance to the fantastic Cape Split in the Bay of Fundy, 
at the entrance to the Minas Basin. It was our cherished 
desire to photograph Horn Island, but we were prevented 
by the disadvantageous conditions ; so far as known, it has 
been photographed but once, and that by Captain Rivers of 
the American ship "A. G. Ropes, ' ' who, a short time 
since, when bound to the westward, sailed boldly in to 
within a few miles and, during a bright spell of weather, 
was enabled to obtain a photograph of the great Cape. 

This is the second time that we have been west of the 
Horn, if only a few miles, and here we go back again to 
the eastward on the starboard tack, with the wind a strong 
breeze from southwest by south. We are steering about 
south-southeast and the variation makes it south, which 
would be passable were it not for the leeway and current, 
so that, in spite of the variation, south-southeast is our 
actual course. Good-by for a few days, friend Horn ; 
perhaps we'll pay you another visit in a week or so. In- 
deed, the most satisfactory manner of ascertaining one's 
exact position down here after a week or two of gales and 
dark weather is to set out and look for Cape Horn, which 
will no doubt be found in two or three days, take a fresh 
departure from it, and then away south again. This is 
actually what we have been doing, only we missed the 
Cape this last time, but found an equally satisfactory land- 
mark in Spencer ; if a ship-master can calculate his longi- 
tude to within a degree (about thirty-five miles) in the 
midst of all these currents, he is a shrewd navigator. By 
the way, what appropriate names have been given to vari- 

230 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

ous portions of wild and comfortless Tierra del Fuego ; on 
the chart now before me appear such appellations peculiarly 
distinctive of this region : Last Hope Inlet, Desolation 
Island, Dislocation Harbor, Obstruction Sound, Famine 
Reach, Deceit Rocks. 

Rain, rain ; snow, snow ; hail, hail. No end of it in 
sight. The aneroid has risen to 30 inches, which, with 
an increase of nine degrees in the temperature, would in- 
dicate a northerly wind ; but we have long since given up 
hoping for such good luck. At 1.30 this afternoon we 
saw the pale sun at an altitude of about seven degrees 
for a moment, but he quickly drew over his face the cowl 
of nimbus cloud, as though terrified at the sight of Cape 
Horn. However, like the Ancient Mariner, ' ' we hailed it 
in God's name," and were comforted at knowing that the 
orb is still in existence. 

Captain Scruggs and the mate often now have very tur- 
bulent and passionate arguments, not to say quarrels, at 
meals. It is apparently impossible for the mate to get his 
reckoning right or anywhere near right, and to-day when 
the dinner-bell had clanged through the cabin, the skipper 
asked him suddenly and angrily what his longitude was. 
Mr. Goggins, after emptying his grimy vest-pockets of bits 
of tobacco, twine, and infinitesimal pencils, quakingly pro- 
duced a morsel of ragged, dirty brown paper, upon which 
appeared a variety of rare and hitherto unknown charac- 
ters, which he twisted and turned at inconceivable angles, 
with horrible facial contortions. There was a dead, por- 
tentous silence, "Well, sir?" rapped out the skipper. 
"I — I — I, er — er, about 71° 22', sir." 

"About 71° 22', eh? That's your idea of the ship's 
position, is it ? Just let me tell you that this has gone far 
enough. Do you understand? How in the devil's name 
can you make it 71° with Cape Spencer right under your 

231 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

nose? Don't you know enough yet to take a new depart- 
ure from a landmark ? I did think you had enough sense 
for that, but I see I was wrong," etc., etc. 

They argue, too, about the most trivial affairs, during 
which the skipper all but blows the skylights off with his 
hurricane voice. Later on, at dinner to-day, they quar- 
relled about the position of a certain San Francisco restau- 
rant. The old man swore that it wasn't on Polk Street. 
Then they went at each other quite savagely, but gradually 
calmed down, and we thought it was all over, when sud- 
denly the skipper hammered on the table with his fist, and 
shouted, "That restaurant's no more on Polk Street than 
this huckleberry pie's a blueberry; I mean raspberry." 
And he was so vexed at his simple little mistake that he 
thundered at the boy Sammie, who stands shuddering in 
the pantry during meals, ' ' You, Sam, get some buckets 
of salt-water and wrench out that bath-tub ; and if you're 
longer than ten minutes, damme if I don't break you 
all to PIECES." Sammie has a woful time of it on board ; 
for, besides doing all conceivable sorts of dirty work, 
he is the butt of the ship's company, teased beyond 
endurance by the men, and kicked and pounded merci- 
lessly by both mates. Probably his most disagreeable and 
anxious moments are passed in the pantry while we are at 
meals. His dread of the old man is so intense that in his 
awful presence he is little better than a lunatic. While he 
is in the pantry he dwells in terror of a summons to the 
table ; and when ' ' You, Sam !' ' finally does come crash- 
ing forth, and he reaches the captain's side in a single 
bound, it irritates this singular man excessively. Then, 
of course, the mate must needs rake up some fancied 
grievance against the unhappy lad, who is immensely re- 
lieved when he is ordered in disgrace from the dining- 
room. The other day the skipper told him, in my wife's 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

presence, that he was not fit to carry guts to a bear. It 
seemed to us that that was exactly what he was doing, es- 
pecially as he had a dish of tongues and sounds in his hand 
at the moment, which to me is the most objectionable of all 
sea-food ; its worse than burgoo and ham-fat. Latitude, 
56° 12' south ; longitude, 67° 32' west. 

July 22 

Wore round at eight this morning, and stood north and 
west once more on the port tack, as the wind backed into 
the southward and allowed us to come up to west-north- 
west by compass, or northwest by west true, which is not 
bad. We made so little to the good, though, in the 
twenty-four hours that it cannot be said that we are doing 
anything more than waltzing up and down the sixty-seventh 
meridian. We have gone through the water fast enough, 
but not in the right direction ; for forty-eight hours now we 
have been under single-reefed topsails, and if a ship can 
carry that canvas she will do five or six knots an hour even 
in a heavy sea. A single reef in the topsails means gen- 
erally whole main-sail and foresail, which is enough to 
send a vessel ahead at a good rate. When the main-sail is 
reefed or hauled up, though, a ship goes to leeward nearly 
as fast as she goes ahead 

We sped over the water then at quite a respectable gait, 
and, in trying to make a littlie westing, if the skipper is 
driving the ship for all she's worth, for both wind and sea 
are heavy, no man can blame him. The men continue to 
grow worse and worse, and there are not six in the fore- 
castle who do not show the effects of exposure, chilblains 
and sea-boils. The latter have increased shockingly ; 
three more men are down with them, Coleman, Pettersen, 
and Eckers. Coleman this morning showed me two dread- 
ful-looking wrists ; the left one was particularly bad, with 

233 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

a deep rent or cavity in the flesh itself that a silver dollar 
would not cover ; not bleeding, but mortifying and slough- 
ing terribly, presenting a sickening spectacle. Coleman 
says that some of the others are a good deal worse than he 
is. Hapless creatures ! how they manage to do any work 
at all with these wounds is difficult to understand. Let 
them be bandaged ever so tightly and what will it avail in 
the rough work ? The bandages soon work loose, and 
there is the bare, raw flesh exposed to the salt-water and 
the rubbing of their sleeves. If Job had sea-boils, it would 
be safe betting that they were the worst afflictions that he 
had. Why will not sailors take care of themselves ashore 
and obviate to a certain extent such suffering as they un- 
dergo off Cape Horn ? The youngest and healthiest of our 
men, those with clear skins, do not seem to suffer much 
with these boils ; and they say that another safeguard to a 
certain degree against them is to dry the wrists as much as 
possible before turning in. Bad food, though, with a pre- 
ponderance of salt meat, will soon play havoc with the 
blood of the stoutest man ; and while there seems to be a 
fairly good variety of food on the ' ' Higgins' ' for the crew, 
yet the majority of sailors on Yankee ships are fed chiefly 
on wretched, scurvy-breeding food. The name that Ameri- 
can ships used to bear thirty and forty years ago for the 
superlatively good rations that the men got, is by no 
means deserved at the present day by the majority of our 
own deep-water ships. Many are the tales of starvation 
told by men arriving on Yankee ships at San Francisco in 
these days ; I mention San Francisco particularly, as that 
port has until very lately sustained the reputation of with- 
holding justice from sailors to a remarkable extent. As to 
the stories of foremast hands lying on the witness-stands in 
court when defending themselves, I am convinced it is 
generally not so. We have seen several acts committed 

234 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

by the mates aboard this vessel against the sailors which 
would be regarded as entirely untrue by a justice if told by 
a seaman. In the great majority of cases the word of a 
bucko mate is taken in court in preference to the sailor's, 
and in this way there is an inconceivable amount of injus- 
tice done to the latter. For instance, there are here at 
least a dozen men in the forecastle the word of any one of 
whom I would unhesitatingly believe rather than that of 
either of the mates. Captain Scruggs appears to be, and I 
believe he is, an entirely truthful man ; but as for Goggins, 
he would lie for a worn-out chew of tobacco (he often tells 
monstrous falsehoods to the skipper concerning the men) ; 
and even Mr. Rarx must come under the same ban. 

It seems to me that this ship makes a great deal of water. 
Twice in every watch, night and day, since we have been 
south of 50°, the ship has had to be pumped out ; and in 
twelve hours yesterday, when the wretched pumps broke 
down again, we made twenty-eight inches of water. It is 
all very fine to say that wooden ships are lighter in bad 
weather than iron ones, and to allude to the latter as diving- 
bells, but this ship is wetter than the iron " Mandalore" 
was running before a heavy sea, and the latter possessed 
the inestimable advantage of never leaking even when 
driven into a high head-sea. 

Captain Scruggs was in a state of mind when, after 
wearing round on the port tack this morning, he found that 
we couldn't head up much better than north true. Of 
course, we had the customary eruption during the manoeu- 
vre, and he raged quite furiously at the helmsmen, who, 
unfortunately, were the two dullest men in the ship — Pet- 
tersen and Eckers. As I say, the captain wrought himself 
into wild gusts of passion, and when he found the ship off 
to north-northwest he had apparently exhausted all methods 
for easing his mind. But we reckoned without our skip- 

235 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

per, being a man of much resource, and he conceived a 
brilliant plan. After standing motionless and speechless for 
a full minute he strode to the weather wheel-house door, 
tore it open, and crash ! slammed it to. Again, another 
bang, worse than the first. Once more a great crashing 
rent the air that shook the structure, while the old man 
ground his teeth and worked his brush-like eyebrows as 
though they were on a string, as he stamped over to lee- 
ward, muttering to himself and shaking all over. It was a 
mirth-compelling scene. 

A little anecdote will show him in yet another phase : we 
asked him, a day or two ago, who was the best helmsman 
in the ship, and he replied, waspishly, "There hain't no 

best among 'em ; they're all d bad ; fed like kings, and 

this is what you get." Latitude, 57° 30' south ; longitude, 
67° west. 

July 23 

At eleven o'clock last night we heard the rasping voice 
of old Goggins sing out, ' ' Land ahead !' ' The captain 
turned out at once (he goes to bed now at seven, and 
sleeps till midnight if the weather isn't too outrageous), 
and immediately ordered the ship on the other tack ; and, 
after we had come around, three pinnacles of rock were 
seen standing sharply up out of the sea, for the night wasn't 
a very dark one. They were the Diego Ramirez Rocks, 
which, lying eighteen marine leagues southwest of Cape 
Horn, form unquestionably the most dangerous obstruction 
in the entire Southern Ocean, rearing their jagged peaks 
vertically out of a depth of two hundred fathoms, right in 
the track of westward- bound ships. If the weather is thick 
and dark, there is nothing to apprise the mariner of their 
proximity, even if he keeps the lead going, until the thun- 
der of what is perhaps the most tremendous surf in the 

236 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

world warns him, too late, that he is within hailing distance 
of the dreaded Diego Ramirez. A crash, a great shout, 
and lo ! a stately ship and her company are effaced in a 
moment of time, a few bits of timber cast upon the shore 
by those vast surges of the South Pacific being all that re- 
mains of what was one of man's most beautiful works, a 
full-rigged ship. 

The last vessel to go ashore on these rocks was the 
American ship " Arabia" ; and, although she went to pieces 
immediately, all of her crew miraculously escaped and were 
taken off by another vessel and landed at Montevideo. 
Ship-masters call the rocks Dyeego Rammerreez', though 
they inconsistently pronounce San Diego as it ought to be, 
— Deeaigo. Why is it, I wonder, that this land is always 
spoken of as being eighteen marine leagues from Cape 
Horn? Why not say fifty-four miles. Yet all ocean 
directories say that they are eighteen marine leagues from 
the Horn, though all other distances are given in miles. 

We would really have passed several miles to leeward of 
the rocks if we had kept on, but no ship-master will ever 
take any chances with them ; however, we are much elated 
at finding ourselves an appreciable distance to the westward 
of the Cape. Throughout the day we have been fanning 
along under a main-royal ! But that's the way of this 
region. Yesterday morning under reefed topsails ; this 
morning courtesying quietly along over an almost smooth 
sea, bar the southwesterly swell. 

A few minutes ago, at about two o'clock, we witnessed 
another exhibition of what is called ' ' discipline' ' on Amer- 
can ships, but what is elsewhere known as brutality. These 
are the facts : After dinner a man was sent down into the 
lazarette to bring up a barrel of split pease ; it was the 
luckless Swede, Briin. This man, who is not particularly 
strong at best, and is now in very bad shape, found great 

237 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

difficulty in shoving the barrel, which seemed to weigh 
about one hundred and fifty pounds, up the lazarette hatch- 
way ; and care must then be exercised never to allow the 
chimes of a barrel to touch the deck, as it would leave a 
scar. Briin finally got the barrel clear of the hatch and 
was rolling it flat along the poop, when the mate, looking 
as sour as lime-juice, carrie hobbhng along the alley-way 
and, pointing to some old marks in the deck, said, ' ' What 
d' you do that for ?' ' Now, I am perfectly sure that Briin 
had not made those marks, and so was the mate ; but 
Goggins was in one of his snarling moods, and without 
further ado he applied his boot to Briin' s person with such 
severity that he fell sprawling over the barrel, which then 
rolled over to leeward and struck the rail with a loud crack. 
Without a word, or even a look, the man gathered himself 
up, and, grasping the barrel, continued on his way, only 
remarking, "I'm doing the best I can, sair," in the weak, 
precise tones of a foreigner speaking English. ' ' What ! 
answerin' back ?' ' yelled Goggins. ' ' Who learned yer 
that, eh?" and running up to Briin, he seized him fiercely 
by the throat with his left hand and then drove his right 
fist with full force into the man's face. The latter staggered 
and fell backward half over the rail into the lanyards of 
the mizzen-shrouds, where he remained some moments 
before he came to ; and then, well knowing that he would 
have been pounded almost to death with any handy weapon 
if he so much as opened his mouth again, he once more 
started forward with the barrel. This is a nice state of 
affairs when men in the merchant service of the United 
States are suffered to be beaten and kicked into insensi- 
bility, and in some cases actually killed at the hands of 
brutal, savage mates. Before we sailed in this ship I had 
often heard that sailors under the stars and stripes under- 
went the most cruel punishments, in many cases of so un- 

238 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

usual and low a description as to preclude mention in these 
pages, but I hardly believed it. Now, however, after 
knowing how Yankee ships are run and that such brutes as 
Goggins sail as mates in them, it is my opinion, and that of 
my wife also, who understands sailors, that the published 
accounts of seamen's cruelties and sufferings at the hands 
of the ofificers of our sailing ships are, in nearly every in- 
stance, true and straightforward descriptions of what took 
place at sea. And what is the usual result ? The justice 
dismisses the case with the remark, "Justifiable discipline." 
This is the way that the marine law is generally adminis- 
tered in our lower courts. There appears to be but little 
attempt at justice for the sailor, though I think that their 
chances of obtaining their rights in the future are consider- 
ably brighter than they used to be. Does any one of the 
other three great maritime nations — Great Britain, France, 
and Germany — permit such acts in their merchantmen as 
the beating of sailors ? Decidedly not. In those countries' 
ships sailors are treated as such and not as anthropophagi- 
ical savages. Yet our marine laws are practically the 
same as theirs. Their laws are enforced, ours are not, by 
reason of petty briberies and deceits. It is a different 
story on our steamers, where the officers would not dare to 
maltreat the men. Discipline, far better than we have here, 
can be maintained without recourse to violence, which is 
proved by the vessels of other nations. Contrary to the 
statements of captains and mates, who make them to shield 
their bad deeds, foremast hands are not continually trying 
to create a disturbance. I will leave this question to be 
answered by two American ship-masters, who run their ves- 
sels as deep-water ships ought to be, and who never have 
any trouble with their crews. These two men, I do not 
say that there are no others (though there are lementably 
few of them), are Captain Gates of the " S. P. Hitchcock," 

239 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

and Captain Banfield of the ' ' St. James' ' ; these skippers 
believe in decent treatment and they see that their men get 
it. Among twenty or thirty men there are sure to be two 
or three hard cases ; these should be dealt with according 
to their deserts ; yet on this ship the black legs have, in 
every instance that we have seen, escaped punishment, 
while such inoffensive and well-meaning men as Briin, Karl, 
and others, have been made the mark for the violent tem- 
pers of both mates. The reason for brutality on Yankee 
ships is traceable in every instance to one man, the cap- 
tain ; for, if he did not countenance it, such acts could not 
be committed. It is passing strange that American cap- 
tains, who have almost invariably risen from before the 
mast, should have so little sympathy for sailors, in view of 
the fact that only a few years ago they suffered from the 
tempers of mates just as now the men do who are under 
them. Latitude, 57° 22' south ; longitude, 68° 55' west. 

July 24 

Our light winds didn't last long, for the cross-jack had 
to be hauled up, the three top-gallant-sails furled, and the 
main-sail reefed during last night. We made excellent 
headway, though, doing five miles more than three degrees 
of longitude, though we were driven off to the southward 
too much, being at noon to-day one hundred and sixty 
miles south of Cape Horn and well below the northern 
limit of drift-ice, though the temperature is not low, 39° at 
noon. Thus far this has been a slightly warmer winter 
passage than the average, though it will surprise many 
people to know that the thermometer rarely falls below 30° 
north of 60° south ; the lowest that Captain Scruggs ever 
saw it was 28°, though a Dutch ship, of which I have for- 
gotten the name, reported the mercury as low as 20° on 
one occasion some seventy-five years ago, 

240 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Fogs form a very disagreeable feature of the Southern 
Ocean after the meridian of the Horn is passed, and the 
dampness Ukewise generally increases. A pretty good 
idea of the excessive moisture in this part of the world 
may be obtained by reading the report of the surveying 
steamer "Sylvia," which was stationed in the Magellan 
Straits for fourteen months. Throughout that period rain 
fell on an average for eleven hours out of every twenty- 
four, the amount per day being half an inch. 

As for fogs, we have been in one for twenty-four hours 
now, and a lookout is stationed on the forecastle-head by 
day as well as by night. Indeed, it is probable that the 
hardest and most tedious part of the passage still remains ; 
usually it is not very difficult to reach the seventieth meri- 
dian, the heaviest westerly gales generally being experi- 
enced between that point and 50° south, which vessels aim 
to cross in 90° west. We should very much like to see 
the wind come out of the southwest again, by which it will 
be perceived how hard we are to please ; for the first ten 
days off Cape Horn we had nothing but southwesterly 
gales, and we rebuked them and would be satisfied with 
naught but northerly breezes ; now a southerly blow would 
be most welcome. 

This morning at eleven the skipper shouted down the 
companion-way that there was a vessel on our weather 
beam, steering east, and that she would pass close aboard. 
So we went on deck at once, and there, looming high out 
of the fog, under a heavy press of sail, was a large, three- 
masted bark. She was the first homeward-bounder that 
we had seen, was probably from Australian or New Zealand 
ports, and she presented a noble appearance as she swept 
rapidly by, distant not more than a third of a mile. She 
was an old-style vessel, although built of iron, with no 
sheer and a phenomenally long jib-boom, the practice in 

i6 241 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

these days being to rig sailing vessels of both iron and 
wood with short, thick, pole bowsprits. We thought she 
was going to ask us for her position, for she was two 
degrees south of the homeward-bound track ; so we 
chalked "59°" and "72°" in large figures on a slate, 
ready to hold up, for she was near enough to make them 
out with the glasses. She flew onward, though, without a 
sign ; and as it was none of our business what she was 
doing a hundred and twenty miles out of her course, we 
didn't offer any suggestions. This vessel was a good 
illustration of the difference in carrying sail between close- 
hauled and running free, for we had nothing set above the 
topsails, while she was under all three royals. 

Yesterday was a grand rest-day for the men, — that is, a 
cessation from being continually drenched with salt-water, 
and a few days of this sort would go far toward healing 
their sea-boils. As Paddy put it, "To-day's worth tin 
dollars to any one of us, sor." It was, in truth, an unusual 
sight to see the men going about without their oil-skins 
once more, for fully two whole weeks have passed since they 
could work on the main-deck without these yellow gar- 
ments. Oil-skins really do not do very much good in heavy 
weather, though, as has been mentioned before. Nothing 
but a suit of diving armor would keep a man dry on deck 
off Cape Horn ; still, oil-skins keep a great deal of water 
out, and also protect a man against the cold. So much 
bad weather lately has deprived me of my customary 
exercise at the pumps, for it is dangerous to go knocking 
about the decks in a heavy sea ; but yesterday I had nearly 
an hour of hard work, doing forty strokes to the minute. 
Both watches pumped together, as a rope was passed over 
one of the handles ; two thousand strokes at a ship's pumps 
is exceedingly lusty exercise if a man doesn't shirk his work, 
and, I should think, would satisfy Sandow himself. 

242 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

As far as the atmosphere here is concerned, to-day is typi- 
cal Southern Ocean weather : drizzly, foggy, clammy, and 
dismal to an incredible degree. There is hardly any light 
at all below at noon, and everything is dim and obscure, 
in spite of the fact that the sun commenced his southern 
journey more than a month ago. The cabin bill of fare, 
however, has not shown the least symptoms of debility ; on 
the contrary, when we got down past the Falklands the 
diversity and excellence of the edibles seemed to increase. 
The immense variety of tinned goods put up in these days 
is astonishing ; for to the old list, which comprised meats, 
pease, and beans, are added such things as spinach, cab- 
bage, and pumpkin for pies, all of which seem to be nearly, 
if not quite, as good as fresh vegetables. The only article 
of food on board that is really bad is the pie-crust ; there 
are not adjectives enough in any language to describe this 
atrocious stuff. So surprisingly good is the eating now 
that I have copied down what we had at each meal for one 
week, in the very worst weather. Here it is, with the hope 
that the reader will not be bored in the perusal thereof. 

Sunday 

Breakfast. — Salt mackerel, smoked sausage, boiled hominy, and 
potatoes. 

Diftner. — Pea soup, pressed corned beef, boiled potatoes, spin- 
ach, tapioca pudding, demi-tasse ! 

Supper. — Pressed corned beef, fried potatoes, jam, and cheese. 

Monday 
Breakfast. — Oatmeal, ham and eggs, corn bread. 
Dinner. — Vermicelli soup, beef stew, boned turkey, asparagus, 

boiled potatoes, deep apple pie. 
Supper. — Boned turkey, corned-beef hash, baked potatoes, 

canned strawberries, " Hamburg process." 

Tuesday 
Breakfast. — Fried tripe, scrambled eggs (questionable), griddle- 
cakes. 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Dinner. — Vegetable soup, Hamburg steak of fresh pork, Boston 
baked beans, pumpkin pie. 
Supper. — Mutton stew, baked beans, stewed corn, marmalade. 

Wednesday 
Breakfast. — Oatmeal, salt herring, bacon, potatoes, rolls. 
Dinner. — Oyster soup, prawn curry and rice, boned turkey and 
string-beans, blackberry pie. 

Supper. — Salt beef stew, baked potatoes, stewed apples, canned 
pears. 

Thursday 

Breakfast. — Hominy, bacon and eggs, muffins. 
Dinner. — Beef broth, roast fresh pork, asparagus, tinned plum 
pudding. 
Supper. — Boned chicken, corned-beef hash, rolls, fig preserves. 

Friday 

Breakfast. — Smoked salmon, omelette (questionable), rice pan- 
cakes. 

Dinner. — Clam chowder, picked-up codfish, meat pie, pease, 
huckleberry pie. 

Supper. — Fish-balls, cold tongue, marmalade. 

Saturday 
Breakfast. — Lobster curry and rice, bacon rolls. 
Dinner. — Vegetable soup, roast fresh pork, Boston beans, maca- 
roni, quince pie. 

Supper. — Cold pork, baked potatoes, baked beans, stewed 
prunes. 

To this excellent bill of fare I must add that every single 
item is of the very best, and when it is mentioned that the 
ship was stored by Morris & Co., who include the White 
Star Line among their patrons, further comment is hardly 
necessary. All the pickles and preserves are in glass jars 
and put up by Crosse & Blackwell, Worcestershire sauce 
by Lea & Perrin, while olives, Edam cheese, and several 
varieties of biscuits are always on the table. With such 
eating, we can exclaim with Nansen, " Are we to be pitied 

244 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

when such cheer for the inner man is provided ?' ' Coffee 
that is actually deHcious washes down all these good things. 
Would that sailors fared as well in proportion. 

But oh, the surroundings ! The captain in his table man- 
ners really isn' t so very much out of the way, but the mate 
and the table-cloth are utterly beyond language. The crust 
of dirt upon every visible portion of old Goggins's anatomy 
is rapidly increasing, and mire of various sorts is crystal- 
lized in the folds of his corrugated skin. It is true that the 
second mate of the ' ' Mandalore' ' was no better, but then 
he didn't eat with us, while this creature does, instead of 
with his pachydermatous relatives in the sty. 

The table-cloth is a marvellous piece of work at the end 
of the third day, with islands of gravy, continents of soup, 
lakes of coffee, and dollops of all kinds of grease, so that 
it looks like a sort of hideous crazy quilt. All this could 
be avoided by using a piece of white oil-cloth instead of the 
soiled cotton cloth, and it could be wiped clean after each 
meal. But no deep-water skipper who ever lived could be 
induced to abandon his table-cloth, which he cherishes 
with an extravagant affection. To him it is one of the 
boundaries between the cabin and the forecastle, and any- 
thing reminding him of those evil days when he himself 
lived in that odious den is too monstrous for thought. Lati- 
tude, 58° 40' south ; longitude, 72° west. 

July 25 

And still to the southward we go. A little more of this 
will be more than sufficient ; but the northwesterly winds 
continue, and we cannot choose but steer whither they will 
permit us. Already we are nearly four degrees south of 
the Horn, and we will no doubt cross the sixtieth parallel 
in a short time. Many captains prefer going even as far as 
64° south, and make their westing down there where the de- 

24s 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

grees of longitude are less than thirty miles, and then steer 
north on a meridian, if they can. If they can. Ah ! that's 
the point ; for often, after penetrating far into the high lati- 
tudes, they cannot get north again when they want to, and 
these vessels then make very long passages. For instance, 
about three years ago several ships were in sight of each 
other, all bound to the westward. Some of them, including 
the ' ' Reuce, ' ' a Yankee ship, of which Mr. Rarx was then 
second mate, knocked about near the land, waiting for a 
slant ; the others dove into the southward immediately, in- 
cluding the ' ' St. Paul. ' ' All of the latter made very long 
passages, the ' ' Reuce' ' having discharged her cargo in 
San Francisco and commenced reloading before the ' ' St. 
Paul' ' arrived. Captain Scruggs is one of those who do 
not advocate the southern passage, and he has no chart 
that reaches below 58° south, so that my track chart of the 
world is the only one that can be used just now. This 
doesn' t seem right, for ships in the Cape Horn trade ought 
to be provided with charts to the South Polar Circle. Sup- 
pose a ship were blown down among the South Shetlands 
without a chart ? Such a thing is quite possible, and once 
in that archipelago without a knowledge of the land or any 
of the courses, a ship would stand mighty little chance of 
getting out again in bad weather. 

This wind is just exactly in the wrong place ; of course, 
we could go round on the other tack, but we couldn't do 
better than north-northeast by compass, which would be 
an absurd course, so we have to go pegging away at it and 
trust to luck. We are now almost exactly south of New 
York, and can imagine the people eating and sleeping there 
at the same time that we do ourselves, though under some- 
what different conditions. Steady rain has commenced 
again ; the aneroid stands at 29, and the melancholy, 
doleful appearance of the heavens and the sea has appar- 

246 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

ently increased. Latitude, 59° 40' south ; longitude, 75° 
20' west. 

July 26 

At last we are steering our course, west-northwest true. 
A very light breeze has just now (4 p.m.) begun to breathe 
softly out of the southeast, so faint that we are not doing a 
mile an hour against a head-sea ; but even such a progres- 
sion is most welcome, being in the right direction. 

We had all the wind that we wanted yesterday after- 
noon, though from the westward. It began to blow hard 
at three o'clock, and at 4.30 the upper fore- and mizzen- 
top-sails were clewed up ; the main-topsail was double- 
reefed at five ; the main-sail was furled at six ; at seven 
the foresail was hauled up, and it was blowing a furious 
gale. So violent was the wind that all hands were more 
than an hour and a half making fast the foresail alone. At 
midnight there wasn't a breath of wind, and we have ever 
since floundered about in a heavy swell irdm several simul- 
taneous directions, and we presented the singular appear- 
ance of a ship becalmed under a double-reefed maintop- 
sail. Of such is the weather in the heart of the Southern 
Ocean. We have crossed the sixtieth parallel, and at noon 
we were two hundred and forty miles farther south than 
Cape Horn ; and so silent and desolate is this vast ocean 
that, like Nansen in the "Fram," we pursue our journey 
in deepest solitude, a molecule in this, the largest body of 
water on the globe. 

There is no alteration in the dark weather, save that at 
one this afternoon the sun showed himself for a moment, 
and I tried to get an ex-meridian, but failed because of the 
poor horizon. It has now been almost a fortnight since 
we have had either a chronometer or a meridian sight, and 
our reckoning is probably far from true. There is always 

247 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

something adverse in taking sights down here ; for, if the 
sun isn't obscured, a bad horizon makes the correct alti- 
tude impossible ; and if the sea- rim is well marked, there is 
sure to be a gale of wind blowing to drench the sextant 
with spray. Happy is the mariner who can get an accu- 
rate observation once every ten days south of Cape Horn, 
and ships often reach 30° south in the Pacific without a 
glimpse of the sun. At four yesterday afternoon the 
heaviness and the oppressiveness and foreboding look of 
the atmosphere were almost terrible; while the disk of 
the sun, weak and pale through the mist-squalls, glared 
down upon the wild scene with sickly eye. Hope has 
arisen within our breasts, though, with the present south- 
easterly airs, and perhaps it will not be long now until 
we are in bright sunshine again, which will dry out every- 
thing below. The stove seems powerless to reduce the 
humidity of the cabin, and the condition of the dining-room 
is absolutely outrageous. 

At supper last evening we had a pleasant little diversion. 
An unexpectedly heavy sea had come up from the north- 
west, which, catching the ship on the quarter, would heave 
her over to leeward in tremendous rolls. The supper-bell 
had rung, and my wife and I had seated ourselves at the 
table on the weather-side, the cat perching itself between us 
upon the bench ; the skipper and mate had not yet come in. 

At that moment these were the contents of the table : 
four dinner-plates, four saucers, two plates of bread and 
biscuit, a large dish of baked potatoes, a platter of 
corned-beef hash, a pressed tongue, a dish of butter, a 
glass jar of marmalade, a basin of stewed apples, and 
innumerable knives, forks, and spoons. All at once there 
came that peculiar motion that always precedes an un- 
usually heavy roll in a sailing ship. We grasped the long 
bench with the grip of death. One short roll to wind- 

248 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

ward, and then began the deep, ponderous, resistless lurch 
to leeward. Over she went, leisurely and quietly, and 
still farther, till she must have been rail under. At this 
moment a dusky object shot by us with incredible speed ; 
it was the steward, who vanished backward into the open 
store-room opposite, and we saw him not again for several 
minutes. The last part of him to fade out of sight was his 
ghastly smile disappearing through the doorway. Then 
various objects began to fetch away in the pantry, — tin 
cans, cups and saucers, gradually increasing to an allegro 
furioso : and, finally, with a frightful clash, like the climax 
of a full orchestra, the entire contents of the table swept 
grandly across to leeward, and fell like an avalanche against 
the opposite wall. For the moment we were stunned by the 
appalling crash, and then there smote upon our ears a shriek 
whose equal cannot be conceived. It swelled now from a 
low murmur to a perfectly infernal scream, like the screech 
of a fog siren, and anon sank down again, like the moan- 
ing wail of the Irish death-cry. It was the cat. At first we 
thought that it was buried under the hurricane of dishes, 
and looked to see it lying in slithers upon the floor. But 
no ; his tail had been nipped in the movable back with 
which the benches are provided, and the harder we pushed 
back against it to prevent ourselves from being projected 
across the table the fiercer was the grip on the tail. We 
could not release the unhappy animal without unpleasant 
results, not to say injury, to ourselves, and we could but 
sit and hearken to its dreadful voice. 

Solemnly and slowly the ship righted, and a scene of re- 
markable devastation confronted us. On the table two 
articles remained, a saucer and a shallow, empty, wooden 
box, used to chock things off in. Everything else had 
crashed against the opposite wall with such terrific energy 
that the plates and dishes were reduced to the minutest 

249 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

fragments. Before it finally found a resting-place the 
cylindrical roll of tongue had carromed separately on each 
baked potato ; a large, unbroken platter slid back and 
forth on the floor like a toboggan upon a slick, gleaming 
path of apple-sauce ; the butter was face down in the 
extreme corner of the store-room ; and the elliptical wad 
of corned-beef hash loomed up brown and moist upon 
the opposite panel, where it had stuck like a wet snow- 
ball. 

When the final clatter had calmed down like the distant 
mumblings of a thunder-storm, the steward protruded his 
scared face around the angle of the doorway, and, urged 
by the saw-like voice of the skipper, who had now flown 
into a passion, and was standing at the threshold, began to 
slowly gather up the fragments of our once succulent re- 
past. We contrived to fare pretty well, though, by scraping 
off the tongue and opening a tin of pease and tomatoes ; 
and we would have treated the whole affair as a joke had 
it not been for the old man's temper. He was thoroughly 
angry, and when I observed that on the ' ' Mandalore' ' we 
had racks four inches high instead of two, and that we 
broke not a dish or a cup during the passage, he almost 
suffocated, and after glaring at us a moment, leaning 
against the mizzen-mast at the head of the table, he 
snarled, ' ' I druther set right down and eat ofien the floor 
than have sech things on the table." 

Indeed, he has been in a violent mood all day at the 
light weather, and a growl is all that he has vouchsafed by 
way of an answer. After dinner he went prowling about 
forward looking for a row, and when he couldn't find one, 
he came back and threw half a plank down the lazarette 
hatch at the poor, mewing, deserted alley-cat which he 
keeps shuts up in the gloom of that dusky cavern. Lati- 
tude, 60° 10' south ; longitude, 76° 20' west. 

250 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

July 27 

Wind east, force 6 ; course, northwest, half west, true ; 
distance run in the last sixty minutes, ten knots ! Glorious 
work ; it is the fastest that we have gone through the 
water in several weeks ; for the last time that we flew along 
at this speed was off the coast of Patagonia, with a west- 
northwest gale over the quarter. The grand easterly wind 
did not reach us until the morning watch, however, so that 
the whole day's run was not so great as the heading of this 
day's log would indicate. Yesterday, from 4 to 8 p.m. , we 
lounged about in an almost perfect calm ; and the stars 
came out of a clear, placid sky, and, quivering and trem- 
bling, peered down upon an ocean nearly motionless, for 
nothing but the ghost of the southwest swell remained. At 
the present moment even the last vestige of it has vanished 
under the influence of the east wind, and the sea is silent 
and undisturbed save for the ruffling caused by the fast- 
freshening breeze. Strange weather for 60° south, only 
four hundred and fifty miles from the South Polar Circle, in 
a locality world-famous for its seas and storms. Some- 
times, as in our case, enormous seas are encountered in 
sight of Cape Horn itself ; but usually the largest are seen 
to the westward of the Diego Ramirez, where the sea sinks 
again to great depths. This easterly wind is quite sur- 
prising to us also ; for, barring one day of southeasterly 
winds when we first spoke the French ship, four weeks ago, 
we have had almost continuous westerly gales. Even for 
Cape Horn a month of such implacable winds is a bad 
record, for on an average an easterly blow should come 
every two or three weeks. Our joy, therefore, is very 
great, now that we are going so finely and heading our 
true course, with the wind on the quarter, and all possible 
sail set and drawing. Another unusual, and to our eyes an 
extremely beautiful, spectacle was the bright, clear sky of 

251 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

last night, with the shining path of the Milky Way encir- 
cling the heavens with its girdle of gold-dust ; the stately 
form of the Crux Australis, now at the zenith ; and in the 
south, forty-five degrees above the horizon, those two weird 
nebulae, the Magellan Clouds, gazing down at us with wan, 
dim eyes. 

Still another source of delight is the fact that for the first 
time in three weeks I have been able to wear foot-gear 
other than rubber boots. My leather ones cracked from 
being hung too near the stove, so that ever since we passed 
Cape Virgins it has either been raining so hard or the sea has 
been so heavy, even on the poop, that nothing but rubber 
would keep the feet dry ; and three steady weeks of rubber 
boots is somewhat monotonous. And sleep ! Heavens ! 
what a grand one last night was for peaceful, deep rest, the 
first that we have had since we showed our nose outside of 
Cape St. John. Instead of the customary rolling through 
an arc of about forty degrees, there was nothing in the 
ship's motion to indicate that we were afloat except an 
occasional deep breath, rather pleasant than otherwise. 
But I am writing as though we were in the Tropics and in 
fine weather for good and all ; instead of which, there are 
hundreds, almost thousands of miles to cover before the 
fine, warm days begin. At this season fine weather cannot 
be looked for till we cross 30° south in about 100° west, a 
difference of latitude alone of eighteen hundred miles, not 
to mention longitude at all. 

Would that some stranger could have heard the mate's 
conversation at dinner to-day and witnessed his gesticula- 
tions. The old man commenced on the subject of the men 
who manned sailing ships in these days, a topic that invaria- 
bly has him in a helpless rage in a few minutes. ' ' Why, ' ' 
said he, after a long speech, "I had a crew once in the 
' Priscilly Waters' that was sailors, not farmers ; one watch 

252 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

of those fellows would do more work in four hours than 
the whole of the eighteen men here in a day, and there was 
only ten of 'em before the mast. Why, all hands on the 
' Waters' used to nearly yank the masts out of her. ' ' 

As in duty bound, the mate agreed with the skipper, 
which he did by sharp jerks and winks in the old man's 
direction ; and even went him one better by telling how, in 
ancient days on the Pacific coast, he had had a crew in the 
' ' Jacob Billings, ' ' for nineteen months on end, who used 
to lift the ship clean out of the water. But his manner of 
speech at meals in the captain's presence ! His absurd, 
grotesque ways ! He is always much embarrassed how to 
begin when he has anything on his mind ; and I can see 
him now, grinning and simpering like a fool, gazing in- 
tently out of the forward window. At last his meditations 
overwhelm him ; and, drawing his greasy sleeve several 
times across his mouth from ear to ear, he begins to utter 
odd sounds in his throat, still staring out on the main-deck. 
Gradually he grows bolder, and fragments of sentences can 
be here and there detected ; when suddenly, carried en- 
tirely away, he turns his bleary eyes full upon you and 
finishes in a violent shout, instantly collapsing, like an ex- 
hausted bellows. 

Often, during an evening, when I go on deck for a breath 
of air before turning in, he will discourse thus : " I tell you, 
Mr. Stevens, Noo York carn't touch San Francisco for 
cheap livin'. Why, sir, I can git a meal in a 'igh-toned 
rest' rant there for less nor a quarter of what I can East. 
Me and the wife was passin' along the street in San Fran- 
cisco one evenin' (yer'd never take me for the mate of a 
ship, sir, if you was to meet me ashore), and she says to 
me, says she, ' 'Arry, I'm 'ungry,' says she. ' Hall right,' 
I says, 'so am I.' So we goes into a 'igh-toned rest' rant 
and has a bowl er soup, a bit er fish, a pick er veal, some 

253 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

vegetables, a piece er pie, and a big cupper corfee. And 
'ow much d'ye think it were? Ten cents apiece. ' Pretty- 
good, ' says I to th' old woman ; ' we' 11 try it in Noo York. ' 
So w* en we got East ag' in, we went into a rest' rant on Ful- 
ton Street, near the ferry, up two flights. Oh, it were 
'igh-toned, too, sir. They 'ad niggers for waiters. So I 
picked one out and says to ' im, ' ' Ere, you, bring a bit er 
steak,' I says, 'some pertaters, and corfee.' Well, I 'ad 
to leave the steak, I couldn't eat it ; and I says to the nig- 
ger, ' Take them pertaters back ; I never eats warmed-over 
vegetables. ' And wot d' ye think they stuck me ? Fifty 
cents each !" 

His talking of restaurants puts me in mind of a rather 
amusing incident that happened to my wife and me in Bos- 
ton a year or two ago. We were walking through Wash- 
ington Street one evening, and being extremely hungry, 
stepped into one of the many dairy kitchens that adorn that 
thoroughfare. We found, upon seating ourselves, that it 
was a religious institution, with biblical mottoes upon the 
walls, and we were amusing ourselves watching the amaze- 
ment of the prim, gray old couples from the country, 
almost stunned by the bevelled mirrors and electric lamps, 
when we became aware of two glaring legends hung cheek 
by jowl high up on the wall. One read, ' ' Only the right- 
eous shall see God. ' ' Its neighbor, ' ' Keep your eye on 
your hat and coat." Latitude, 59° 9' south; longitude, 
79° 15' west. 

July 28 

Course, northwest true, distance run in the twenty-four 
hours, two hundred and seventy-eight miles ! Hurrah 
for the fair wind ! Long live the easterly gale ! What 
better conditions could be desired than those that now pre- 
vail? A fair, fresh gale, a sea which, while rough, is 

254 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

nothing out of the way, and a splendid position in which to 
take the expected northwesterly gales in a day or two. 
Every square inch of canvas is drawing to its utmost ca- 
pacity, and we averaged only a fraction less than twelve 
knots for the twenty-four hours. Now, in spite of all the 
old records of more than three hundred and fifty miles a 
day, a run of two hundred and eighty is an extremely good 
one. It is certainly no great feat for a ship to make fifty 
or fifty-five miles in a watch, but when she maintains twelve 
knots for twenty-four hours, sailors call it fast going. 

Some heavy water has come aboard in the last three 
hours, as all sailing vessels are very wet running before a 
strong wind and sea. At this very moment we shipped a 
comber over the quarter that broke entirely over the cabin- 
house with a crash that shook the bulkheads, and the 
skipper has just sung out, " Clew up the royals." This is 
still another fine example of the difference between on and 
ofl the wind. It is blowing a fresh gale, as noted before, 
which means about forty-five miles an hour ; yet until this 
moment we have lugged the three royals without trouble, 
and only clewed them up because the sea is getting ugly ; 
by the wind we would be under reefed topsails. The 
" Hosea Higgins" doesn't seem to run well. Even in this 
sea, which certainly is not really heavy yet, she is em- 
phatically a wet ship. The "Mandalore," a "diving- 
bell," was drier than the " Higgins" is now, when she was 
running before a sixty-mile gale. We had no business to 
take that sea over the quarter a moment ago ; indeed, 
ever since noon we have had heavy, green water on the 
poop, and an idea of the quantity may be gained when it 
is said that while the captain was standing by the weather 
mizzen-shrouds after dinner, a sea washed his legs from 
under him, and his grip on the mizzentop-sail-halliards was 
the only thing that prevented his being swept down on the 

255 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

main-deck. All the square windows in the weather-side of 
the house have been covered with the heavy, solid wooden 
shutters, as though they were ports in the ship's side, 
instead of being inside of and protected by the bulwarks. 
The glass, which has been wonderfully steady for sixty 
hours, has commenced to fall, and a heavy gale is probably 
overhauling us, for easterly gales off the Horn have a hard 
name. 

In all our experience at sea we never saw anything like 
the dampness during the late light weather. No rain fell 
then, but so heavily charged with moisture was the atmos- 
phere that the water actually ran off the poop as during a 
shower ; and from the top of the wheel-house, in size ten 
by fifteen feet, we filled two ten-gallon tubs in twelve hours 
with the moisture that condensed upon it ; while down the 
walls of our room, separated from the dining-room, where 
the hot stove is, only by the after-cabin, moisture trickled 
in glistening beads. 

The men have slightly improved, though they are still 
a badly used-up lot of sailors. To what an apparently 
infinite number and variety of ailments and mishaps they 
are liable ! There is the tough and hardy second mate, 
even he has lost the entire use of one hand by a trivial 
accident. He had a small wart or something of that sort 
on the back of his right hand a few days ago, and on one 
occasion, while slacking off the weather lower maintop-sail- 
brace, one of the ropes knocked off this tiny excrescence. 
Mr. Rarx paid no heed to it ; but in twenty-four hours his 
hand had swollen dreadfully, puffing up like a huge biscuit, 
and where the wart had been there formed a large sore that 
had to be lanced. Cold salt-water and friction must be 
looked to as accountable for this, for Rarx is as lean and 
healthy-looking as a prize-fighter. Louis Jacquin, the 
Frenchman, too, another specimen of rugged health, had 

256 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

a finger caught in a main-brace block and jammed, drawing 
blood ; and in two days an ugly purple rising appeared at 
the base of the nail, as large and shining as a hot-house 
grape — so hard, withal, that a lance penetrated it with 
difficulty. 

The best men in the ship are sent to the helm now, for 
an awkward, false turn of the wheel in such a sea would 
broach the ship to in a moment, and then, good-by pumps, 
rail, and everything else on the main-deck. Latitude, 
55° 53' south ; longitude, 85° 20' west. 

July 29 

Salve lux benigna / Yesterday morning daybreak came 
perceptibly earlier than it used to, and by seven o'clock it 
was sufficiently light to distinguish faces at a short distance ; 
while this morning, so much northing had we made, that 
at seven it was broad daylight ; and we will soon be able 
to eat our quarter-to-eight breakfast without the palsied 
yellow glare of the lamp. It is true that the sky is still of 
a Saturnian lead color, but the dark, heavy feel of the 
atmosphere has disappeared. To-morrow we will cut the 
fiftieth parallel if this easterly breeze holds. It has let go 
to a certain extent, yet it blew us over two hundred and 
fifty miles in the twenty-four hours, and in three days we 
have done six hundred and fifty miles to the northwest- 
ward, which is extraordinarily good work for this locality ; 
our position is simply splendid. 

The desire of Captain Scruggs for wishing to appear 
that he knows everything, especially in the presence of the 
mate, is still very remarkable. Sometimes it is amusing, 
but more often extremely annoying. Frequently, when I 
tell him something that he has never heard of before, he 
will nod his head slightly, and, with an alteration of my 
own words, repeat the sentence aggressively and dog- 
17 =57 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

matically, as though it came directly from him, and he was 
giving us the information. The mate is completely de- 
ceived, and always looks admiringly toward him, simulta- 
neously winking and leering atrociously. Moreover, Cap- 
tain Scruggs is a man whom you cannot possibly surprise 
by any statement ; and he is' always unmoved in the face 
of the most unusual occurrences. As an example, we 
found, one morning, having taken the precaution of glancing 
into the pitcher, that the syrup contained a quantity of 
foreign substances which floated about in it. 

' ' There seems to be a number of curious things in the 
syrup," I humbly ventured; "looks like long-cut to- 
bacco." Disturbed? Indeed, no. He only clutched the 
pitcher from me, peered ferociously into it, and growled, 
" Steward, see if you can't get this dust out with a knife." 

The skipper is likewise completely destitute of imagina- 
tion. Shortly after we sailed I started to read an extract 
to him (I was bold in those days) from a collection of ex- 
cellent sea stories called " The Port of Missing Ships," in 
which mention is made of a mate who was so zealous that 
he * ' tried to see how near he could come to standing in 
two places at the same time without spHtting himself." 
Here I paused and glanced with a smile at the old man. 
But, with a face as expressionless as a tadpole's, he asked, 
' ' Isn' t that a little overdrawn ?' ' 

The mate rises to the most sublime heights of his absurd- 
ities when he observes at dinner, as he frequently does, with 
a smirk perfectly diabolical, " Hi knows the secrets of hall 
the codfish haristocracy of San Francisco. My old woman 
used to work in the Wite 'Ouse" {i.e., that city's branch 
of the Parisian Maison Blanc) " as a fitter ; and be gar's 
sakes, sir, the things wot I've 'eerd is hawful." 

He also makes use of extraordinary syncopations in con- 
versation. For example, should my wife ask him a ques- 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

tion about the weather, he always says "Sam?" which, 
being done into English, signifies, "What say, ma'am?" 

Mr. Goggins is also abnormally addicted to stewed 
prunes, which we often have for supper. He usually dis- 
poses of four or five at each mouthful, and you wait to see 
him get rid of the pits ; but you are disappointed, because 
he seems to have swallowed them. At length he has fin- 
ished a large saucerful, pushes back his plate, draws his 
sleeve heavily across his face, leans back in his seat, looks 
fixedly at a point in the ceiling with a wooden face, draws 
in a long breath, bends over, and gently blows a dozen or 
so of prune-stones into his plate, like a shower of hail- 
stones. Then mumbling, " Hexcuse me, sir," wriggles 
off his seat and out of the door. Latitude, 52° 34' south ; 
longitude, 89° 37' west. 

July 30 

At last we have accomplished the arduous midwinter 
passage of the Horn, having been twenty-two days off the 
stormy Cape, or just about the average ; but we would 
have been at least a week longer had it not been for that 
friendly easterly wind. We actually saw the sun several 
times to-day, too, were enabled to ascertain our exact loca- 
tion, and our calculations proved to be only fifty miles 
out in longitude and thirty in latitude. In consideration 
of the fact that for about a fortnight we wrestled with pow- 
erful currents, and uncertain ones at that, the error, espe- 
cially in the departure, must be considered insignificant, in 
view of the almost limitless sea-room. Whatever may be 
Captain Scruggs' s failings, he is a first-rate seaman, and a 
keen, astute navigator ; and on many occasions near Cape 
Horn we had opportunities of observing his accurate, almost 
infallible judgment. 

To add to our increasing sense of comfort, the sun is 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

mounting very rapidly in the heavens, both on account of 
our northing and by reason of the lengthening of the south- 
ern days. The noon altitude was 21° 20', a very respect- 
able height, more than double that of a week ago, when at 
meridian the sun, if we had been able to measure his alti- 
tude, would not have been more than 9° 30' above the 
horizon. The orb, besides, had sufficient power to raise 
the mercury two degrees at mid-day when we hung a 
thermometer in his rays. 

Of! Cape Horn in winter the temperature is usually 
somewhat lower than that of the North Atlantic between 
the British Isles and the Newfoundland Banks in January. 
It is only between the latter point and New York that ves- 
sels experience such an intensity of frost as to contract the 
mercury to zero and sheath them in several feet of solid 
ice. That is, in the deepest seclusions of the open sea, the 
weather, even in the coldest season in high latitudes, is 
generally mild and soft compared with that found at the 
same parallel near a great expanse of land. Indeed, the 
comparatively high temperature of the entire Southern 
Ocean in winter is due to the preponderance of sea, the 
long, narrow finger of Patagonia being the only land south 
of 45°, save some diminutive clusters of islands. 

On the other hand, though, owing to the uniformity of 
temperature produced by such a waste of ocean, Cape Horn 
summers are but little warmer than the winters ; the dif- 
ference between the lowest of July and the highest of De- 
cember being only 18°, the average for the year being 42° ; 
whereas in Canada, far away from the mellowing influence 
of salt-water, there is an extreme thermometrical range of 
150° between the seasons. Compare Cape Horn's winter 
temperature of 30° in the latitude of 56° and that of Min- 
nesota of 55° below zero, though St. Paul is six hundred 
and fifty miles nearer the equator. St. Paul's average for 

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the year, 44°, is almost identical with that of the Horn, the 
intense heat of the northern summers almost exactly bal- 
ancing a degree of cold not exceeded by 20° on the Arctic 
Ocean. Contrary to the general opinion, the most intense 
cold is not to be found in the far northern sea where Nan- 
sen travelled, but in Siberia. In the centre of that desolate 
country is a town called Irkutsk in 52° north, or fifteen de- 
grees south of the Polar Circle, at which the lowest natural 
temperature ever recorded by man has been observed, the 
spirit thermometers once showing a temperature of 93° 
below zero, or 53^° below the freezing point of mercury. 
Artificial cold, though, has far exceeded this reading, as 
Professor Dewar obtained a temperature of about 370° below 
zero in the liquefaction of oxygen. This latter figure is 
about as conceivable as the unit of measure of the astrono- 
mer, who adopts as his basis of calculation for celestial dis- 
tances that extent of space which a ray of light would cover 
in a year, moving at the rate of one hundred and eighty 
thousand miles per second. In other words, instead of 
using one mile, his unit of distance is 5,676,480,000,000 
miles, which is known as a light year ; and he further 
crushes us with the information that stars of the seventeenth 
magnitude are thirty thousand light years away. 

By this time the exhausted reader has said to himself 
many times, " What's all this got to do with the Southern 
Ocean ?' * So, with apologies for such an excursion into 
the infinite, let us continue. 

We are now kept farther away than ever from the dining- 
room stove by a new aggregation of garments, very dif- 
ferent from the others, which need a little explanation. All 
the oil-skins in the slop-chest were used up by the men last 
week, and we have had to manufacture some for them. 
Many ships make a practice of taking to sea several suits 
of heavy cotton (which oil-skins are made of), but without 

261 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

being treated with the usual mixture of wax and oil. When, 
therefore, a ship's regular stock of oil-skins has been ex- 
hausted, the captain produces some of these cotton suits 
and has them well rubbed with three coats of boiled linseed 
oil, allowing each coat to dry ; the result being thoroughly- 
water-tight, pliable garments, which will not crack, as slop- 
chest oil-skins have a curious habit of doing. 

Around our stove for three or four days there have been 
suspended several of these suits, so oil-sodden that to touch 
one means an immense grease-spot. Nor is this the only 
inconvenience, for the whole interior of the cabin reeks 
with the stifling fumes of hot, boiled oil. 

As far as we have been able to discover, there is but one 
article sold from a slop- chest to sailors that is worth paying 
for, and that is the stiff, black sou'wester. They are very 
comfortable, though as rigid as a fireman's leather helmet, 
and are lined with heavy red flannel, with a band of the 
same that extends over the ears and back of the neck, to 
the exclusion of the most penetrating snow-squalls. The 
face is protected by a wide visor of the same inflexible stuff, 
which extends far down over the neck. As the old man 
remarked, " One o' these things would stop a battle-axe." 
However exaggerated this may be, though, they do most 
effectively preserve the cranium from the severest Cape 
Horn hail-squalls ; you might as well tie a handkerchief 
over your head as to wear an ordinary yellow sou'wester in 
one of these squalls, as far as protection from the hail is 
concerned. 

We now have for tea every evening a dish entirely new 
to us. It is a hind-quarter of pig steeped in brine for a 
fortnight ; in other words, an unsmoked ham ; and it is 
the sweetest, juiciest pig meat imaginable. I would rather 
eat it than the tenderest young sucking pig I ever tasted. 
Another very successful article of food on board is the 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

soup, which is made as follows : Empty one of the large 
one-gallon tins of mutton (put up in a liquor like canned 
sausages) into a saucepan ; add tinned carrots, tomatoes, 
rice, and barley, boil them together for about thirty min- 
utes, season well with a very little onion, pepper, etc. , and 
a rich, well-flavored soup will be obtained which would 
pass for stock soup almost anywhere ashore. It is infi- 
nitely better than the finest tinned soup. The mutton 
before alluded to is often purchased by ships in large 
quantities and given to the men, alternating with salt beef 
and pork ; it is also much used for making meat pies for 
the cabin table, for which it is well suited, the resemblance 
to fresh mutton being remarkable. Our last pig has just 
been slaughtered ; it seemed a pity to kill the poor beast, 
for he was an intelligent, quaint little fellow, very tame, and 
fond of being petted. Latitude, 50° 14' south ; longitude, 
90° 12' west. 

July 31 

Our breeze from west-northwest has not been very strong 
for the past twenty-four hours, and in addition we made 
two degrees of easting, which is sad. This was the first 
morning for a month on which we were able to eat our 
breakfast without lamplight, and in another week we hope 
to dispense with it at supper also. The weather is by no 
means clear yet, though, and we are now crossing the 
famous Roaring Forties, that belt of fierce winds lying 
between the parallels of forty and fifty on both sides of the 
equator, and clear skies cannot be expected until we are 
north of 40° south at least. 

I expect to suffocate with suppressed hilarity before long 
if Mr. Goggins continues to grow more absurd. Last night 
I went on deck about ten o'clock and found the mate 
silently pacing athwartships near the wheel-house. It was 

263 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

raining, and his costume itself was enough to generate 
mirth in an owl. He was wrapped as in a sable shroud, in 
some one's long black oil-skin coat, which was so much 
too large for him as to touch the deck, and the sleeves 
hung down half-way to his knees like the arms of a walrus, 
while his head was covered with a very old, limp sou'- 
wester, also black, which fitted him like a skull-cap ; it pos- 
sessed not even an indication of a brim, so that the driz- 
zling rain trickled down along the musty creases of his face, 
glistening in the wake of the binnacle-lamp. His forsaken 
appearance was further enhanced by a couple of yards of 
ancient gray rattlin-stufi that girded up the folds of his 
coat and prevented his tramping on it. 

Without a word he ranged up alongside, and dropping 
his voice to a rasping whisper, as is his wont whenever he 
is about to reveal a startling theory, he said, mysteriously 
and very suddenly, — 

' ' The human race is on the decline, sir. ' ' 

I didn' t reply, and he continued, ' ' Where are the strap- 
pin' big fellows, five- foot ten, five-foot eleven, and five-foot 
twelve, you used to see ? Where are they, I say ? Gone. 
Gone. And wot do ye find now ? The present generation 
is growin' up small and feeble, sir. They' re weak and no 
good. And luk at the winds ; they're changin' too. They 
hain't wot they used to be in the Atlantic ; nor in the Pa- 
cific ; nor off Cape Horn. The Trades is changed. Every- 
think's changed. I may be a hold fool, sir, but I knows a 
thing or two. There's more in my 'ead than comes out 
with a fine-tooth comb. ' ' 

All this with the most intense earnestness and so much 
stifled emotion as to render him partially unintelligible, 
while ne snapped and jerked his long sleeves about in the 
most uncomfortable manner. 

Then he abruptly changed the thread of discourse and 

264 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

began, "You talk about seas comin' aboard, but you 
ought to been with me once when I was mate o' the 
'Commodore.' 'Tvvas in the Santa Barbara Channel, 
and blowin' a whole gale o' wind. We were runnin', but 
bime by the old man thought he'd heave her to. So we 
put the helium down, and as she was comin' up, be gar's 
sakes, sir, she shipped a sea that I thought was goin' to 
take the hatches off. 'You'd better jump below and call 
the second mate,' said the cap'n ; so I slipped down the 
after-companion-way into the cabin, where the old man's 
eight-year-hold son was jockeyin' a sofy that had fetched 
away, and says he, 'Dad's a-givin' of 'er 'ell, ain't he?' 
he says. Well, I called the second mate, and then the 
cap'n says to us, 'Go down and cut the lashin's o' that 
ere water-cask by the after- hatch ; she'll wipe the houses 
off if she don't free herself.' ' Tvvas a funny thing to do, 
but he was cap'n ; so we crawled down on the main-deck 
where the watch was knockin' about and cut the barrel 
adrift. In less nor five seconds it went through the rail, 
and in a minute there warn't a capful o' water on deck. 
It cost about ten feet o' the port bulwarks, but 'twas our 
only chance." 

Now that we are well up past the rigors of Cape Horn, 
it actually seems as though we were close to San Francisco, 
while five thousand miles of latitude remain and fully fifty 
degrees of longitude, as ships are forced well out into the 
Pacific by the northeast Trades. Latitude, 48° 30' south ; 
longitude, 88° 25' west. 

August i 

Oh, how divinely beautiful and grand the dark-blue floor 
of heaven is after four weeks of hard gales, leaden, lower- 
ing clouds, and gray, clammy mists ! To-day for the first 
time the sun shone with dazzling splendor, and although 

265 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

the altitude at meridian was only 26° 51', we agreed that 
never before in our lives had we known a day of equal 
magnificence. And, even making allowance for our en- 
thusiasm, the weather was well-nigh perfect. Between 
sunrise and dusk not the smallest cloud blurred the blue 
sky, which was reflected in a sea of dazzling crests, whose 
valleys partook of that dark, superb, velvety blue which is 
seen only where the ocean-bed sinks to immense depths, 
and which Mark Twain says looks solid enough to walk 
upon. A sparkling breeze whistled out of the west as ex- 
hilarating as pure oxygen, giving us a speed for the twenty- 
four hours of nine knots. That blighting, killing chill has 
vanished and one' s ears no longer tingle on exposure ; 
and at noon we enjoyed a temperature of 50°, a rise of 
twenty degrees from the lowest. What a change in six 
days from 60° south, 76° west, to 45° south, 88° west ! 
Pretty good work that, in less than a week ; it is so much 
better than the average that it seems incredible. We can- 
not believe that in so short a time we have been blown 
across what ought to have been the worst part of the en- 
tire voyage. It was all the work of the east wind. 

Just now there is a long, deep roll coming in from the 
southwest, and I am earnestly looking for some of those 
immense waves for which the South Pacific is famous. 
According to sailors, they usually occur two or three days 
after new and full moon ; and as we had a new moon last 
night, perhaps we will see some of these rollers. This re- 
minds me, however, that scientists have determined, after 
protracted observations, that the moon's phases have no 
influence at all on the weather. Sailors often say during a 
spell of bad weather, ' ' Well, there' s a change in the moon 
to-night ; we' 11 have a fine day to-morrow' ' ; and if chance 
supports their remark, heaven couldn't shake their belief. 

This heavy sea that is met with here is generally not at 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

all ugly ; only a deep heave- up from the southward, often 
without wind, and is said to be one of the most impressive 
of all oceanic phenomena. The South Atlantic as well as 
the Pacific is also visited periodically by immense seas during 
calm weather. At St. Helena and Ascension they are 
called "rollers," while at Fernando de Noronha and on 
the West African coast they are known by the Portuguese 
name of "calemmas." They seem to occur chiefly in 
January, and, strange to say, they invariably came from 
the northwest. The quotation that follows is from the pen 
of Captain S. P. Oliver, who visited St. Helena in 1881 in 
one of the Union steamers : 

' ' These rollers set in from the northwest on Thursday, 
January 13, with unusual severity, but lulled somewhat on 
the following day, Friday, only to recur with abnormal 
force on Saturday, attaining their maximum strength on 
Saturday night, so that the spectacle on Sunday morning 
was grand and magnificent, while the weather was bright 
and calm. It was surprising to see the spray of these deep 
ocean waves hurled by sheer force, for there was no wind, 
like fountains over the huge cliffs of Goat Pound Ridge 
and Horse Pasture, which rise perpendicularly seven hun- 
dred feet sheer out of the sea. The force of these enormous 
billows was spent by Sunday night, and gradually subsided 
into the normal calm on Monday morning." 

At our present rate of sailing a fortnight would see us 
on the equator, but if we cross it in three weeks it will be 
fine work. What sort of luck are we going to have be- 
tween these westerly winds and the southeast Trades ? 
That is one of the crucial points of the voyage that remain, 
another being, how far south will the northeast Trades 
blow? 

We had a little excitement to-day at dinner. Ever since 
our cabin fire has been going, it has been the custom of the 

267 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

steward to put a can of whatever vegetable we were to have 
that day for dinner upon the top of the stove to heat ; the 
proper way, of course, is to place the can in a dish of 
water and that in turn upon the stove or what not. To-day 
it was a tin of string-beans, and the steward, fully an hour 
before dinner, put the can upon the stove, which was nearly 
red-hot. (The warmer the day the hotter the fire, here as 
elsewhere.) When the soup had been cleared away, the 
gentle, timid little Malay took the tin into the pantry and 
attacked it with a can-opener. But no sooner was the 
metal pierced than the whole pantry was filled with a suffo- 
cating steam that rushed hissing out of the vent with the 
most astonishing fury. We sat aghast. The old man 
cursed a little and the mate got up, but instantly thought 
better of it and sat down again. And still the steam came 
belching out of the can, which had fallen down and was 
shooting about the pantry like a demented steam-cylinder, 
while we could dimly perceive the slender form of the little 
steward through the pungent vapory clouds making cour- 
ageous efforts to lay hold of the bewitched bean-can. For 
nearly a minute steam continued to escape with such force 
that it almost shrieked ; and had the tin remained another 
five minutes on the stove it must certainly have exploded 
and scattered boiling water, beans, and jagged fragments of 
tin and lead about the room. 

Last evening at supper a bottle of Apollinaris burst in 
my hand with a loud report as I was opening it, scaring the 
valiant Goggins into upsetting a full cup of tea upon a clean 
cloth, for which the old man fixed him with his eye and 
held him thus for quite half a minute during an awful 
silence. 

If only for the sake of the sailors we are anxious to get 
into warm weather again as soon as possible. Now that 
they have removed the mufflers, etc., from their necks and 

268 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

heads, we can see how pale and washed out most of them 
are. There are only two among them who do not bear 
ocular proof of the hardships of a month in the Southern 
Ocean in July. Paddy is perhaps the worst looking of the 
whole crew, though he cannot be thirty years of age. 
This is due probably to his never, under any circumstances, 
shirking his work, and to his exerting himself more than 
any one else in the ship. Indeed, he was so full of nerve 
and energy in the worst weather, that the captain surprised us 
once by saying, pointing to Paddy on a yard-arm in a heavy 
squall, " There's what I call a brave man ; he doesn't know 
what fear is." The skipper didn't mean to insinuate that 
Paddy was courageous for going out on the yard at that 
moment ; he was thinking about his general conduct. 

Poor Paddy's arms from wrist to elbow are perfect 
mountain-chains of sea-boils, and he looks as ghastly and 
pallid as a corpse, with pointed nose and staring eyes ; his 
entire appearance has changed. It may be interesting to 
add that the majority of foremast hands do not live to be 
forty- three years old. 

I forgot to say that for the first time in five weeks the 
mate shaved for dinner to-day, and so sleek and blue and 
shiny and naked did it make him look, that it was almost 
a shock when he sat down opposite us. Latitude, 45° 2' 
south ; longitude, 87° 40' west. 

August 2 

This day was even finer than yesterday, except that since 
ten this forenoon we haven't had much wind. But the 
weather is warmer, 48° at 8 a.m., and the sea is as placid 
and still and clear as under the line. All the ground-swell 
has disappeared, and the great, level expanse of the mighty 
South Pacific stretches on all sides in tiny crinkles, frosted 
here and there by a crisp sparkle of froth ; and the sea- 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

rim bounds the view in a circle as sharp and black as ink. 
It was a day of almost tropic beauty, save that the air 
lacked the ineffable balm characteristic of a day at sea 
between Cancer and Capricorn. We rejoice at seeing the 
sky-sails once more expanded to the breeze, for to-day 
the three yards were crossed, giving to the ship a fine- 
weather look. Juan Fernandez will soon be abeam, and 
then only a few degrees more to the Trades, for we made 
three and a half degrees of latitude yesterday and hardly 
any easting. How pleasant it is to think of the approach 
of warm weather again, when we can lie in deck-chairs in 
the shadow of the wheel-house with a good book, or pass 
away the hours with a backgammon- or cribbage-board ! 

We are very much pleased to find how free this ship is 
from roaches that usually abound in sailing vessels ; the 
only member of that objectionable family that we have yet 
perceived was a small red one ; of the large, black cock- 
roaches we have not seen one, though on the ' ' Mandalore' ' 
we were told that they were numerous on all wooden ships. 
Neither have we discovered any of the more villanous 
creatures, which cannot be said of many transatlantic mail 
steamers. 

A fact worthy of note, as deplorable as it was unexpected, 
is that since passing the meridian of Cape Horn we have 
not seen a single albatross. Indeed, during the whole 
passage we haven't seen more than a dozen of them, they 
having been most numerous between the river Plate and 
Staten Land. In truth, the albatross seems to be disap- 
pearing, which is not astonishing when it is considered that 
many ship-masters either use them as rifle-targets or catch 
them by the half-dozen with hook and line, and take the 
quills and down home to sweethearts and wives. Is it not 
odd, by the way, that there are more benedicts among sea- 
captains than are to be found among the men of any other 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

profession ? Yet long- voyage skippers, who are invariably 
married men, see their wives only once a year. 

Perhaps the albatross has been driven away into regions 
even more solitary than Cape Horn, but it is my belief 
that they are gradually vanishing, which is to be much 
lamented. They are of no apparent use to mankind, but 
neither is the tiger ; yet if that royal beast were upon the 
eve of extermination, as our bison is, there would be a great 
wailing heard in the land. The albatross, be it said, has 
all the regal dignity of the bison ; and no one who has not 
seen it can imagine the imperial flight of a full-grown wan- 
derer. Latitude, 41° 35' south ; longitude, 86° 56' west. 

August 3 

Pleasant northerly breezes, a smooth sea, and brilliant 
sunshine gladdened our hearts this morning, and at noon 
we found ourselves well north of 40°. The wind hauled 
to the northward somewhat during the night, though, so 
that, with the variation, we did not make good a better 
course than northeast by north, and are now heading for 
Juan Fernandez in 34° south. 

We have made a disagreeable discovery about Timothy 
Powers in the port-watch. I don't remember whether it 
was mentioned before or not, but Tim was said to have 
fallen oH the forward house two weeks ago and sprained his 
right arm. From the first the captain never could discover 
anything wrong with it, but as the fellow insisted that he 
suffered terrible pains in that member, there was naught to 
do for a while but to believe him. At last the skipper grew 
tired of Tim's loafing, and, going out on the main-deck this 
morning, he gave the Irishman a very sulphurous dressing 
down and compelled him to turn to. He was sent forward 
to clean out the pig-pen, and he went to work with a woful 
countenance to lift off two planks that served as an apology 

271 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

for a roof to the sty. He couldn't move them with one 
hand, so he stopped, looked carefully about to see whether 
or not he was observed by the mates or any of his friends, 
deliberately took his arm out of the sling in which he still 
insisted on carrying it, lifted the heavy planks down with 
ease, put his arm back in the sling, resumed his pitiful look, 
turned to reach for a broom, and found the eyes of the sec- 
ond mate fixed steadily upon him. Mr. Rarx had been con- 
cealed and had witnessed the whole affair. That settled it. 
Tim almost fainted from shock, and from now till the end of 
the voyage his will not be a bed of roses. Think how this 
creature has been imposing not only on the captain and 
officers, but on his fellow-shipmates as well ! For two entire 
weeks his most arduous duty consisted in keeping the look- 
out on the forward house in the daytime, perfectly well, 
with all night below, while his friends, ill and drenched to 
the skin, had to dive around the main-deck day and night 
with chattering teeth, two hands short in the worst weather, 
— two hands, because old Neilsen has been laid up in his bunk 
with general debility, too weak to even put his foot on the 
main-deck. Tim is the sort of animal who contributes 
much to the misery and suffering of sailors. A captain, for 
instance, catches a man in such a deceit, never forgets it 
and refuses to believe the next man, who actually has hurt 
himself, so that the real sufferer has to bear the penalty of 
the other's fraud. It is not a criminal offence, but a low, 
contemptible trick ; though just such a one as a man with a 
face like Tim's would be guilty of. The mate's powers of 
divination are not particularly acute, for he observed one 
day off the river Plate, looking at Tim, ' ' There goes a 
feller that /call a good, faithful man." 

At dinner to-day I chanced to remark that, as we had had 
such benefits from the easterly wind, we ought to accept our 
three points of easting now without grumbling. Mr. Gog- 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

gins, however, is a fearful kicker, even for a sailor ; so, think- 
ing to please the old man, he instantly replied, " We ain't 
had forty-eight hours o' good luck on the hull passage," 
This was so remarkable a statement that my wife was pro- 
voked into saying, gently but positively, ' ' The man who 
talks like that doesn't deserve to reach port for six months 
more." "Well, we ain't," quoth Goggins, doggedly. 
Then I took a hand (it is usually best not to argue with 
him and the skipper), and asked as sarcastically as I could, 
' ' I suppose that three days' easterly gale doesn' t count ? 
And how about the first sixteen days of the voyage ? You' re 
enough of a sailor, I suppose, though, to have forgotten all 
that." I thought that he was floored ; but he was pos- 
sessed of more vitality than one would have supposed, for 
he came back at me with, " Well, the yards was ag'in the 
backstays all the time in the North Atlantic." 

This was such a novel stand to take that we let him 
alone, so that he got up and tramped out of the cabin 
much inflated. What possible difference it could make 
whether or not the yards touched the backstays as long as 
the ship lay her course and went through the water was 
beyond my powers of reasoning. 

We are now followed by an immense number of Cape 
pigeons. What merry, blithesome little fellows they are, 
apparently all good- nature and love for one another as 
they circle around the ship, almost brushing the standing- 
gear in their mad, tumbling flight, now skimming just 
above the sea, now soaring over the mast-heads, and 
sweeping down again for very joy that they are made ! 
But let a bucket of table refuse be thrown over the side, 
and then away with good-fellowship and fraternal affec- 
tion. It's a true case of every one for himself and the 
devil take the hindmost. No sooner does the refuse touch 
the water than two or three catch sight of it, and in an in- 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

stant fifty pigeons are involved in furious battle. They 
fairly scream in their excitement, and beat each other with 
their powerful wings, and snap viciously right and left with 
sharp, curved bills. Then one lucky one will perchance 
seize -a choice morsel. Instantly he is set upon by a dozen 
of his companions, who niercilessly bear down upon him 
before he can rise from the surface with his prize, and ac- 
tually beat him down under water in their fierce efforts to 
get at the tempting mouthful ; but so plucky are they, that 
we have never seen one relinquish anything when his bill 
has once closed upon it. 

While the pigeons are engaged in this deadly strife a 
great molly-hawk sometimes looms up astern, having 
sighted the combat from afar, and dashing into the centre 
of the squabbling flock, which scatters before his huge 
wings and wide, formidable beak, like crows before a vul- 
ture, he snaps up the bone of contention and soars away to 
enjoy it at his leisure. After the rapacious monster has 
departed from out their midst, the dejected little creatures 
return, and hover over any particle of food that may re- 
main, ever and anon diving far below the surface for a 
crumb that they perceive deep down in the placid depths, 
rising again with such amazing buoyancy and energy as to 
lift themselves clear out of the water, like an inflated blad- 
der suddenly released. They afford us much amusement ; 
but another six hundred miles farther north will, no doubt, 
see the last of our merry little companions. Latitude, 
39° 35' south ; longitude, 85° west. 

August 4 

Although the lovely clear skies have for a while disap- 
peared, being obscured by the most clearly defined stratus 
clouds that I ever saw, the weather is bracing and dry, with 
a sea so smooth that it never would be supposed that we 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

were hundreds of miles from any land larger than Juan 
Fernandez or its neighbor, Mas-5-Fuera. Each day sees a 
rise of two or three degrees in the air and sea, and we are 
moving well up into the heart of the thirties. We will, no 
doubt, soon fall in with vessels from Chilean ports bound 
around the Horn ; but those from San Francisco have been 
driven so far to the westward by the Trades that in this 
latitude they are away over in 125°. The wind is still to 
the northward of west, and we continue to make more east- 
ing than is desirable ; because, if we have to steer much 
farther in towards the land, our course when we take the 
Trades will have to be northwest in order to cross the line 
in the right place, which, of course, would be dead before 
the wind, an undesirable position in a square-rigger, as in 
that event only the after-sails draw. 

Captain Scruggs was quite a treat at the mid-day meal, 
for he appeared in one of his majestic phases, when no one 
can tell him anything that he doesn't already know. My 
wife unhappily mentioned that this would be fine yachting 
weather. Now, the mere mention of a yacht nearly always 
upsets him ; and we, therefore, had to listen while he dis- 
puted vigorously with himself for some minutes ; and he 
finally concluded with the assertion that he could take the 
"Volunteer" and sail right round the "Defender"; he 
knew the old one was better, anyhow, than that there new 
brass boat, or whatever she was made of. On suggesting 
that he might find some little difificulty in consummating 
such an undertaking, he replied, " Well, I've got that con- 
fidence in myself ; I used to sail small boats when I was a 
boy, and I ain't forgot how." 

He concluded his remarks, always delivered in explo- 
sions as though challenging you to deny them, with a dis- 
quisition on jams. He believes in the theory that all kinds 
of preserves are boiled down together, and that different 

275 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

labels are then stuck on the tins. " Look at that, now," 
he growled, pointing to one on the table. "What d'ye 
call that ?' ' I showed him the device of a fig on the wrap- 
per, with the name beneath it. " Lemme taste it," said 
he, plunging a knife deep into the preserves, ' ' There, 
what'd I tell you? 'Taint fig jam, it's currants; they 
hain't got the right libel onto it," he explained. 

When dinner was over we repaired, as usual, to the 
after-cabin, while the old man strode heavily back into the 
dining-room, called the mate, and abruptly demanded, 
' ' Have you got that spigotti out yet ?' ' 

"What's that, sir?" asked the mate. 

"Spigotti, spigotti ; like macaroni. Don't you know by 
this time what spigotti is ?' ' said the skipper, very angrily, 
for he knew that he didn' t have the name right and that we 
could hear him. 

"No, sir, Cap' in Scruggs, sir, I'm d if I do," 

stammered the hapless Goggins ; for we could perceive 
the captain through a chink in the door bristled up like a 
rufifled bantam, and the hideous, grisly old mate, his eyes 
popping out like a pair of deviled kidneys, racking his 
brain for a translation of spigotti. 

But the particularly scintillating jewel in the skipper's 
galaxy of remarkable pronunciations is his name for the 
inhabitants of Chile. They become Chilaneans ; though, 
now that I think of it, I have heard other ship-masters put 
themselves to the trouble of so pronouncing it. Where do 
they get that extra syllable from ? Now, in the case of 
Cubians, it's different. They all say Cuby, so why not 
Cubians? It's logical. But Chilaneans is unreasonable. 

Speaking of Cuba reminds me of what a Chesapeake 
Bay fisherman asked me once, "Hain't Mayceo fit with 
the Cubians before ?' ' This was just before Maceo was 
killed. 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Captain Scruggs seems utterly unable to avoid contradic- 
tion, and, being possessed of very uncouth manners (which 
he nevertheless knows quite well how to correct), it may 
be conceived how trying an ordeal half an hour at the 
table with him must be. " Don't talk with him, then," is 
very easy to say ; we don't talk between meals to him, but 
at table it is almost necessary to make one or two observa- 
tions in thirty minutes ; and whenever the silence becomes 
overwhelming and we hazard a remark, it is disheartening 
to listen continuously to "/don't think so." Latitude, 
37" 3' south ; longitude 83° 20' west. 

August 5 

Just another such day as yesterday, with the sky obscured 
by sharply-cut, stratus clouds. The only perceptible dif- 
ference is that to-day the air is a little more balmy ; the 
wind and sea are precisely the same, and our experience so 
far has been that the Pacific is most aptly named. Of 
course we ought to be reaching smooth water now, though 
it is often rough in the southeast Trades ; the surprising 
part is that we had such a quiet sea in the stormy forties. 
The air has been wonderfully soft all day, the thermometer 
indicating 58° at noon, although the sky was completely 
overcast. 

Mas-a-Fuera bore east-northeast true at mid-day, dis- 
tant in round numbers one hundred miles, with Juan Fer- 
nandez two hundred miles away in about the same direction. 
The appearance of this latter island is said to be strikingly 
beautiful, though in size it is only thirteen miles by four. 
It consists of a series of steep, rugged hills, formed by 
huge boulders piled one upon the other, the loftiest reach- 
ing an altitude of three thousand feet. Palms, tree-ferns, 
and a thick undergrowth partially cover these rocky de- 
clivities, growing in very shallow earth, which slips away 

277 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

when one attempts to scale the precipices, and it is said 
that on this account the culminating peak has never yet 
been ascended. 

Juan Fernandez, which lies in the approximate corre- 
sponding latitude of the Madeiras, is indissolubly associated 
with Robinson Crusoe, Defoe having based his tale upon the 
adventures of one Alexander Selkirk, of Fifeshire, Scot- 
land, who was put ashore there in 1704, at his own request, 
by Captain Straddling of the ' ' Cinque Porte' ' galley, with 
whom, as master, Selkirk had quarrelled. It is highly im- 
probable, however, that Juan Fernandez is the island pic- 
tured by Defoe, as his descriptions in Crusoe do not always 
tally with the conformations of Fernandez. Modern writers 
incline to the belief that Trinidad, off the Venezuelan coast, 
was the island in " Robinson Crusoe." Selkirk lived on 
Juan Fernandez until 1709, when he was rescued by the ship 
' ' Duke' ' from what seems to have been a by no means in- 
tolerable imprisonment. Mas-^-Fuera, which means "more 
to sea," called so by the Spaniards, though far smaller than 
its neighbor, is even loftier still, one peak attaining a height 
of four thousand feet. 

In every spot where men do congregate there will nearly 
always be found one silent individual, from whom it is 
apparently impossible to extract a single syllable. We 
had one such on the "Mandalore," an English seaman 
with a Board of Trade certificate. During the whole voy- 
age of eighteen weeks he was never heard to utter a word 
unless he had some unavoidable reason. Aboard the 
' ' Higgins' ' there is a man who can give him cards and 
spades on taciturnity, for he hasn't been known to speak 
by either mate since the eleventh of May. This contem- 
plative genius is Karl, he whom Rarx so brutally struck in 
the face with the block away back in the South Atlantic. 
Even then no word passed his lips, though he did groan. 

278 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

He isn't surly — it is just his way — and the mates do not 
mind now when he doesn't answer, as he is manifestly so 
willing. For torpid stupidity and phlegmatic stolidity his 
equal would be hard to find, and we have often watched 
him at work and wondered, ' ' Can it really talk ?' ' The 
most unexpected and painful surprise cannot draw from 
him the slightest exclamation. For instance, a fortnight 
ago, one afternoon at the pumps, a big sea surged over the 
side, but most of the men saved themselves by jumping up 
on the fife-rail, except Karl and Briin. Indeed, the latter 
had saved himself, and was kneeling on the rail holding 
fast to the mizzen-royal-braces ; Karl's mind, though, was 
far too numb to grapple with such an emergency, so the 
water carried him off his feet, wrenched away his grip on 
the pump-handle, and was sweeping him across the deck, 
when he grasped one of Brian's feet in his flight. This 
broke the latter' s hold on the brace, and away both flew 
into the water-ways, where they bobbed around for a while 
in thirty-six inches of icy brine. Briin was in a rage, of 
course, but not so Karl. His wooden face arose by and by 
from the roaring scuppers, placid and tranquil ; he then by 
degrees found his legs, waited for a weather-roll, shot back 
to the pumps, and resumed his place, totally unmoved. 
All this time he was as dumb as a giraffe. 

Again, yesterday afternoon, he was doing some work on 
the starboard main-brace-bumpkin, when he slipped and 
went half under water before he caught the bight of a rope 
that luckily hung over the side. Even this didn't trouble 
him in the smallest degree ; he didn't even wink his cod- 
fish eyes, but seated himself again upon the bumpkin and 
proceeded with his job. 

Toward the end of the third month at sea most people 
begin to suffer somewhat from dyspepsia, induced, no 
doubt, by the absence of fresh meat and vegetables, though 

279 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

the best tinned varieties of the latter certainly taste as good 
as the fresh. In the old days people, it is true, did not have 
the great amount of such edibles to choose from as they do 
now in going to sea, but they had plenty of young pigs and 
sheep and chickens, which atoned in measure for the lack of 
canned vegetables. Indeed, the deck of a Yankee ship 
fifty years ago looked like the conventional barn-yard, 
with its pig- and sheep-stalls, hennery, and not infrequently 
an enclosure for a couple of cows. Latitude, 34° 5' south ; 
longitude, 83° 15' west. 

August 6 

Gradually, since daylight, the form of the clouds has 
been changing till they have assumed that of cumulus, 
and as the wind is letting go, with an appearance of showers 
ahead, we seem to be upon the brink of a change in the 
weather. For seven days the wind has been at west-north- 
west, with never a shift of two whole points, while the varia- 
tion of the aneroid during that period was not more than 
fifteen-hundredths of an inch. We are practically on the 
thirtieth parallel at present, so that in eleven days we have 
made thirty degrees of latitude. Steadily, too, the tem- 
perature has been rising, standing at 59° at eight this 
morning for both air and water ; a still more significant in- 
dication of our northing, however, is that last night the 
fire in the cabin stove was allowed to die out, to-day being 
the first time in thirty-eight days that we have been without 
artificial heat ; thus for almost six weeks has the stove been 
going full blast, for it was first lighted in 38° south in the 
Atlantic. 

It is always an interesting thing to note the different atti- 
tude of captains toward their chief mates on long-voyage 
ships. Some are extremely affable, others are reserved 
and haughty to an absurd degree. Where men are con- 

280 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

fined together in so small a space as a ship's deck for 
months at a stretch I think that a captain ought to be 
reasonably unbending, but always dignified, in his manner 
toward the chief officer, though, of course, much depends 
upon the sort of man the latter is. Captain Scruggs is by 
turns civil and positively wolfish toward Mr. Goggins ; and 
one of the most curious phases of the old man's character 
is that he invariably crushes the mate whenever the latter 
says something that he thinks will please the skipper. 
Night before last, at supper, during a conversation about 
British Columbia, the mate turned to the captain and beam- 
ingly said, ' ' I remember the time, sir, thirty years ago, 
when you used to could talk Chinook with the best of 
'em." To his chagrin, though, the old man growled, 
' ' Never knew six words of Chinook in my life' ' ; while as a 
matter of fact he used to talk it well. Mr. Goggins re- 
turned to the charge, however, and again essayed some 
remarks, during which he ventured to hope that the wind 
would back into the southward and let us make some west- 
ing, very reasonably supposing that here was a sentiment 
that any skipper would endorse. But, though the captain 
has been in a white heat lately at our easting, he observed 
that he ' ' didn' t care a chew er terbakker where the wind 
went to," which so angered the mate that he answered 
quite hotly, "Well, so far as /go, I'm sure /don't care 
'ow long we're at sea ; but I know you do and so do the 
owners." " I say I don't care a rap, rap, rap !" stormed 
the skipper, and we looked for a row ; but the mate slid off 
the bench and disappeared. 

Strange man ; unfortunate disposition. He must con- 
tradict. He feels it his duty to differ from every one else, 
even if he knows that he is wrong. This morning I re- 
marked, as we sat down to breakfast, * ' I see the ther- 
mometer's 59° this morning." "58^°, I think," he cor- 

281 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

rected. Now, in the first place, it was 59° ; and in the 
second place, he wouldn' t have known it if it had been half 
a degree lower, for he can't read a book without powerful 
lenses, much less the rusty scale of a thermometer a foot 
above his head. Latitude, 30° 44' south ; longitude, 82° 
30' west. 

August 7 

' ' Unhook that double main-sheet ! Square the yards !' ' 
Oh, welcome, joyous words ! Even if the wind is not more 
than a breath, it allows us now to lay the course and with 
a little to spare. 

There are some ultra-nautical landsmen who will vigor- 
ously object to the first word in this day's log, and will 
insist that I ought to have written " cast-off" instead ; but 
if these individuals would go to sea they would learn that 
there are many expressions heard aboard ship which no 
argument could persuade them to use, for fear of not being 
considered aufait in nautical nomenclature. We have all 
seen the horror of the pale youth with the large steam 
yacht when some one in his hearing has suggested going 
"down-stairs" instead of "below." Yet many deep- 
water sailors say "down-stairs." And one of Captain 
Scruggs' s characteristic orders is, "Let the fore-t' gallant- 
yard run down, Mr. Rarx, and tie up the sail, ' ' instead of 
" Clew up the fore-t' gant'-s'l," while he himself ordered 
the double main-sheet " unhooked." 

To resume. For seven or eight days we have been 
jammed hard on the wind, and while we have made very 
excellent northing, we have fallen away to the eastward so 
much as to well-nigh overbalance our difference of latitude. 
In yesterday afternoon's watch, however, the ship began 
to come up, and all last night we steered northwest, our 
course, making fairly good way, though it fell calm at day- 

282 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

break, but breezed a bit again, and the yards were checked 
in a couple of points more at lo a.m. According to Find- 
lay, the average time from 50° south in the Pacific to San 
Francisco is fifty-four days, and as we are somewhat ahead 
of the average since leaving that parallel, we can stand a 
good deal of light weather and still make a fair passage. 
It cannot be denied, though, that from the equator to 40" 
south on the other side we had a remarkable streak of bad 
luck ; and I expect that the "A. G. Ropes," which sailed 
from New York thirteen days ahead of us, will make a 
faster passage than we will. In parenthesis I might re- 
mark that most of the large ship-owners give their cap- 
tains ten dollars per day for every day under one hundred 
and twenty. For instance, if a man makes the passage in 
one hundred and ten days, he is entitled to one hundred 
dollars. 

It may be that the curious would like to know how we 
passed those dreary weeks off Cape Horn, and here was 
our scheme, though, in truth, our habits then were about 
the same as they are now. I rose at seven, breakfasted at 
quarter to eight, and walked the poop alone till nearly 
eleven. On days that were very rough, it was a continual 
source of pleasure to chock myself off between the stern- 
bitts and speculate, when a particular wave was still several 
hundred yards off, whether it was going to break on board 
or whether we would clear it. It is a fascinating spectacle, 
this, and an hour often passed like five minutes as I gazed 
with ever-increasing awe at the resistless power of the huge, 
crested breakers. 

Then down to our room, where we read "Farthest 
North" aloud till noon, when my wife made her first ap- 
pearance. Dinner then occupied us till nearly one, when 
we went on deck to walk for half an hour, if not too rough. 
Down again to write up our journals, plot off the course on 

283 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

our own chart, and note down in the government book 
the meteorological observations made at Greenwich noon. 
This brought us to four o'clock, when we again went on 
deck to remain till dark, and then a book claimed us until 
supper, a little after five o'clock. Deck once more from 
six till seven, in spite of any weather ; then books again 
until nine, when we went up for a breath of air again before 
turning in. 

Exciting ? No, truth compels me to admit that it was 
not, although no doubt some of the days would have been 
lively enough for almost anybody. Those who are sus- 
tained by excitement must never by any chance allow 
themselves to be persuaded to try a deep-water voyage, no 
matter how completely they may have convinced them- 
selves of their fondness for the sea. A true and abiding 
love for the sea is a very rare atttibute in any man. I 
mean that fondness for the ocean which enables him to 
live contentedly and happily upon it for half a year at a 
time, and to accept uncomplainingly whatever chance may 
provide. The monotony of a twenty weeks' voyage to 
ninety-nine per cent, of civilized humanity would be nearly 
incalculable ; and in the case of one sent to sea for health's 
sake, it is entirely conceivable that the depression conse- 
quent upon such a voyage would, in some degree, counter- 
act the beneficial effects of sea-air. It is owing to a peculiar 
temperament that a few people can stay at sea for an in- 
definite number of months without in any way tiring of 
the life. To these few the state of the weather and the 
direction of the wind are absolutely immaterial. A calm 
of a fortnight or a month of head- winds, either in the 
Tropics or the Southern Ocean, are regarded by them 
merely as events which they expected to encounter when 
they sailed. 

In spite of everything said and written to the contrary, I 

284 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

believe that in every sailor, from seaman to master, his love 
for the sea is never extinguished. Let them assert, times 
innumerable, that they hate the life, and yet see how they 
all return to it after a little while ashore. It is of no avail 
to argue that because a man is bred to the sea he is inca- 
pacitated for duties ashore ; I have known of several ship- 
masters who, through influence, obtained lucrative posi- 
tions in various firms, but who resigned them, unable to 
further withstand the magic influence which the deep sea 
exerts over those who have once fallen under her resistless 
enchantment. Nor does the case of the common sailor 
differ. I once knew a respectable foremast hand who ob- 
tained the position of driver of a laundry-wagon in Boston. 
This was a nice job, but I awaited developments ; and, 
sure enough, in three or four months he signed as bosun of 
a Japan- bound oil-ship. Even the most shiftless of sailors 
could surely use a pick or shovel dirt ashore, yet they 
prefer the less profitable and inconceivably more arduous 
duties of the life before the mast, simply because they 
cannot overcome the wondrous allurements of Old Ocean. 
Latitude, 28° 52' south ; longitude, 83° 12' west. 

August 8 

We have almost every reason to believe that we have 
taken the southeast Trades. I say almost every reason, 
for the only cause for doubting is that we are so far south 
yet, and the wind, after all, may not amount to anything. 
In any event, we are all astonished at such an outburst of 
luck, except the skipper, who testily replies to interroga- 
tions, ' ' This may go into the Trades ; it certainly is 7iot 
them yet.^'' At 4.30 yesterday afternoon, just as we had 
composed ourselves for the hazy, yellow calm that lay upon 
the sea, a light air from astern overhauled us, and back- 
ing into the southeast in a few minutes, breezed up from 

285 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

that desirable quarter in a most refreshing manner, so that 
ever since we have averaged seven knots. This, if it lasts, 
is a most remarkable stroke of fortune, as ships often lie 
idle for a week or more between the westerly and the south- 
easterly winds ; and to run from one into the other, with 
only an hour's calm, is as unusual as it is welcome. We 
are inclined to believe that, after all, we will make the voy- 
age in one hundred and thirty days, — that is, in six weeks 
more. On this subject the old man is, of course, as dumb 
as a lobster, and resents any such suggestions by obsti- 
nately staring in the opposite direction ; while Mr. Rarx, a 
man of great experience in the North Pacific, which is now 
probably the only bUe-noir left to us, even goes so far as to 
say that five additional weeks will anchor us in San Fran- 
cisco Bay. 

We have now left behind us that most solitary and vast 
portion of the South Pacific almost entirely devoid of the 
smallest fragments of land, and we are entering that part 
thickly spattered with rocks and islets that most people 
never heard of, not to mention the thousands of islands to 
the westward that form the great clusters of the Society, 
Friendly, Samoan, Gilbert, EUice, Marquesas, Caroline, 
New Hebrides, Ladrone, and Marshall groups. For in- 
stance, in our neighborhood at present are the islets of San 
Felix, San Ambrosio, Podesta, Sala-y-Gomez, and the 
Emily and Minnehaha rocks ; doubtless there are dozens of 
others besides, too insignificant to appear on a chart of the 
world, such as I work with. These few, however, will 
serve to show how thickly sown the Pacific is with insular 
obstructions ; and it is for this reason that this ocean, bar 
that part south of 30° south, has never seemed to me as 
desolate or lonely as the Atlantic, north or south. Behold 
how fittingly Nature has cleared the North Atlantic of 
nearly every indication of land and has left an abundance 

286 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

of clear, open water, through which rush the great steamers 
which connect Europe and America, safe in the knowledge 
that even if they drifted about for months with disabled 
machinery there would be practically nothing to interrupt 
their wanderings. The most remarkable proof of this was 
the case of the large schooner "Fannie E. Woolston," 
timber-laden, which drifted about for thirty months, cover- 
ing six thousand miles in that time, an average of over 
three knots per hour, without approaching land. This was 
ascertained by means of the reports of many different vessels 
which passed close to the ' ' Woolston' ' during her perigri- 
nations. Indeed, the only island that lies at all near the 
track of steamers bound from the more northerly European 
ports to those north of Baltimore is the terrible Sable 
Island, the "Graveyard of the Atlantic," in 44° north, 
60° west, about two hundred miles east of Halifax. More 
vessels are lost here than at any other spot in open water, 
and its number of casualties are probably only exceeded by 
such shoals as the Goodwin Sands. 

Turn, then, to the North Pacific, and it will be seen that, 
with the exception of the higher northerly latitudes, through 
which lies the great circle track between San Francisco or 
Vancouver and Japan, that immense body of water is liter- 
ally dusted with coral reefs and islands ; though it is neces- 
sary to examine a large chart to appreciate this, as no 
geography will answer. 

There are recognized among men several great classes 
or divisions of bores, such as those who magnify their own 
greatness, those who can remember how much colder the 
winters used to be in their boyhood, or, if in New York, 
those whose memory recalls the period when milch cows 
lowed where the City Hall now stands, and swine rooted in 
the dirt upon the site of the Post Office. But there remains 
yet a genus of bores so infinitely surpassing those men- 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

tioned that they may be said to form an entirely different 
family. Fortunately for mankind, comparatively few per- 
sons are victimized by them, by reason of their profession ; 
but in those parts where they do congregate, they are as 
deadly as Mark Twain's brain-fever bird. Allusion is made 
to those venerable and crusty master-mariners who extem- 
porize by the hour upon that grand race of sailors who used 
to man the wind-jammers in days of yore. Start them once 
on this subject, and woe to the anguished wretch snared in 
their toils. One would think, in listening to them, that they 
were talking about an extinct race who inhabited the seas 
about the middle of the nineteenth century, and, like the 
apteryx and platypus, had been suddenly and mysteriously 
exterminated ; and when one ventures to suggest that surely 
there must be some resemblance to those exalted beings in 
the men who now sail before the mast, these aged sea- 
hedgehogs bristle up and fly in a passion as they descant 
upon the puny breed who now defile the honorable name 
of sailor with their pampered notions and blubber-head 
stupidity. These persons ought to be confined in some 
retreat for the rest of their lives ; the disease is incurable 
and terribly Infectious, for every sea-captain over fifty 
years of age suffers more or less from the unhappy 
malady. 

It is true that the steamer has cut huge swaths in the 
sailing-ship trade, but there are still a vast number of 
square- riggers left which pay good dividends. It seems to 
be the prevalent opinion that steam has spoiled seamen for 
sailing-ship work, but in reality the men who ship for long 
voyages never do anything else, and let steamers severely 
alone. Many good men, no doubt, begin their careers as 
lamp-trimmers, etc., in steamers, and usually remain in 
them, and in this way sailing ships, no doubt, lose a num- 
ber of fine men ; but it is well to bear in mind that deep- 

2SS 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

water and steamship foremast hands are very different 
beings in many respects. 

As noted in an earHer page, some people are crying now 
that as soon as the Central American canal is cut through 
it will be the instantaneous death-knell of the long-voyage 
sailing vessel, but those who really understand the business 
of transportation by water do not agree to this by any 
means. Here are the words of Arthur Sewall, than whom 
few, if any, are more competent to speak on the matter : 
" As long as the wind blows and water flows there will be 
sailing ships built and business to keep them busy. There 
will always be a chance for them to compete against steam 
in traffic where time is not a factor, or where delay is actu- 
ally a good thing. For instance, there is the wheat crop. 
In July or August it begins to be ready for delivery, and 
in a short time the whole year's supply is ready for ship- 
ment. But the consumption of a crop stretches over a 
whole year. Shipping wheat in sailing vessels consumes 
several months' time, which would otherwise require the 
storing of the wheat. Sailing freights are actually less than 
steam freights, plus storage charges. So, you see, here is 
business which sailing ships can hold. Then, again, take 
railroad materials, especially rails, which are manufactured 
faster than they can be used, and where the delay of sail 
over steam is better than storage. Of course, as in any 
other business, it is a case of the survival of the fittest, and 
as smaller ships are relatively more expensive than large 
ones, small ships cannot make money, and will have to 
make way for large ones. ' ' 

An excellent precedent in favor of the continuance of sail- 
ing vessels is that subject in connection with the Suez Canal. 
When this was a thing accomplished it was said that no 
more square-riggers would go out around Good Hope ; 
yet consider the enormous amount of sail tonnage that is 
19 239 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

despatched every year to India, China, AustraUa, and 
Japan, for it is computed that eight hundred saiHng vessels 
double Agulhas every year in both directions, and as but 
few of the ships in the Eastern trade have a carrying ca- 
pacity of less than thirty-five hundred tons, the amount of 
merchandise that passes the southern extremity of Africa 
per annum foots up the imposing total of at least seven 
million tons. 

Mr. Goggins appeared at dinner to-day in a frock-coat ! 
Can one conceive the effect produced upon the mind by the 
contiguity of a frock-coat and a red-flannel shirt. Certainly 
not. , No one could unless he had seen it. Goggins was 
monstrously proud of it, too, in spite of its being several 
sizes too small for him, and ostentatiously got up during 
the soup and officiated at the drawing of a pitcher of root- 
beer from the ' ' kag' ' in the corner, during which evolution 
he suddenly became embarrassed at the unwonted attention 
centered upon himself, and in some way managed to upset 
the pitcher all over the floor ; and when he sat down he 
was in such a state of excitement that his nasal whistiings 
and obligates were more piercing than ever before. And 
just think of this creature's name, Leander ! Oh, heavens, 
it is too much ! Latitude, 26° 54' south ; longitude, 84° 
50' west. 

August 9 

Ninety days at sea, and another month cannot take us 
in, nor do we desire it, in spite of our surroundings. The 
wind has freshened constantly, and, being to the eastward 
of southeast, it has sent us along at an eight-knot clip, 
steady and true, and we have done one hundred and ninety 
miles in the twenty-four hours by the log, for we have had 
no sights for three or four days. The temperature is almost 
perfect, about 65° day and night, and as there is no sun 

290 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

to dazzle one, reading on deck has once more become a 

joy- 
Yesterday afternoon MacFoy returned Nansen's "First 
Crossing of Greenland," which he borrowed a few days 
ago ; he is an intelligent man and knows all of Nordensk- 
jold's works pretty thoroughly. There is a notion, though, 
to which he clings with characteristic Scotch tenacity ; in 
spite of everything, he insists that Nansen started upon his 
last great voyage in a steam whaler from San Francisco. 

But if this fellow is well read, what can be said of old 
Kelly, in the mate's watch. We pumped together yester- 
day afternoon and had much conversation, during which 
he said that he hailed from Charleston, but that his family 
had moved north to Troy when the war broke out, and 
that his parents had brought him up strictly and decently. 
He volunteered no reason for having turned sailor, but 
branched off into literature, beginning with a pertinent 
quotation from Burns and another from Moore. These led 
him on, and he expressed great admiration for ancient his- 
tory, concluding with a well-turned eulogy on Giobon's 
' ' Rome, ' ' with illustrations for preferring it to any other 
account of that great empire. At first it seems extraordi- 
nary to find so intelligent a man before the mast, living a 
beast's life, and surrounded by men with whom he has but 
little in common. Yet such fellows are by no means un- 
common at sea, for one often happens upon a man in a 
Cape Horner's forecastle whom Nature did not intend 
should be there. 

How different is old Kelly's conversation from that of 
the mate, especially at dinner and supper, when he shouts 
out his witless jokes ! To-day he burst in with the follow- 
ing silly story, and it was totally irrelevant to what we were 
talking about : ' ' There was a hold feller I knoo onct that 
lived in the country, and when 'e saw the telegrapht wires 

291 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

put hup past 'is farm, 'e 'ung a pair 'o boots on 'em to 
send 'em to 'is son." At the conclusion of such pleas- 
antries his sense of humor is so agitated that he seems upon 
the brink of spasms, and his temporal arteries swell out as 
big as lead-pencils, while he chortles and wheezes and gasps 
like an old tattered bellows. 

What quaint expressions sailors have, too ! Mr. Rarx 
was talking about athletics last night, and incidentally 
asked who was now the greatest ' ' hammer-heaver' ' ; it 
must be remembered that objects at sea are never thrown, 
they are always hove. 

As we approach the final quarter of the voyage we can- 
not help wishing that we were going to land at Calcutta as 
we did before. Oh, the incomparable delight, the un- 
bounded pleasure of those two months in India which fol- 
lowed the termination of our voyage in the ' ' Mandalore' ' ! 
The memories of those nine weeks in British India carry 
with them a charm perfectly indescribable ; and were it 
given us to visit but one more country on the globe during 
our lifetime, we would unhesitatingly choose another stay 
in the land of the Himalayas. Latitude, 24° 28' south ; 
longitude, 87° 5' west. 

August 10 

Moderate southeasterly breezes, a smooth sea, and mag- 
nificent weather. He who would nqt be happy here now 
must needs be hard to please. At midnight we cut the 
circle of Capricorn, and have, happily, once more entered 
the torrid zone, after an absence of fifty days, for it was on 
June 20 that we passed Capricorn in the Atlantic. Verily, 
it doesn' t seem as though almost two months have elapsed 
since we first sighted the "Judas Dowes" that Sunday in 
the latitude of Rio. How time speeds on at sea ! A week 
does not seem longer than twenty-four hours, and before 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

we realize it they will be making ready the anchor. Our 
progress is very gratifying, though the perversity of the 
skipper will not allow him to believe or even to suppose 
that we have taken the Trades. He has surprised us much 
in the last few days by going down on the main-deck and 
assisting in the repair of the old sails. See how inconsist- 
ent he is ! He considers himself so infinitely above the 
sailors that mere proximity to them under other circum- 
stances, even for a moment, carries infection with it ; yet 
now, down he stalks to the main-deck, off comes his coat, 
and down he drops flat, his short fat legs sticking wide out 
before him like a brownie's, as he turns to in a cluster of 
the defiling sailors. For some days he sewed merrily away 
on top of the deck-house, which was a different affair alto- 
gether, and sail-making is a very agreeable pastime. But 
we were immeasurably astonished at the arrogant Scruggs's 
consorting thus with the foe. 

As the captain and I were pacing the poop at ten o'clock 
last evening, the sky at the time being cloudless and the 
moon almost full, suddenly, as we turned to go aft, we saw, 
over our shoulders, a dazzling glare of light from forward, 
like a very bright lightning-flash, and, turning quickly, 
we observed a ball of fire shoot by at right angles to 
our course and disappear behind the foretop-gallant-sail. 
" What was that?" said I. " Oh, that was just a meteor 
or whatever you call it, ' ' answered the skipper ; ' ' you 
often see 'em hereabouts. Last voyage one bursted near 
the ship at night at the dark o' the moon somewhere about 
15° south, and most scared all hands to death." Such 
exhibitions are met with in all parts of the world, even in 
cold, high latitudes. I remember the case of the large 
British ship " Cawdor," Captain Jardella, during one of her 
recent voyages from Swansea to San Francisco. She made 
a very long passage on this occasion of one hundred and 

293 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

eighty-four days. She had a terrible battering in the 
Southern Ocean, and reported on arrival that off Cape 
Horn an enormous meteor plunged into the sea with a 
stunning explosion, so close as to flood the decks. 

We learned last evening of a horrid accident that oc- 
curred on this ship six weeks before we sailed on the pres- 
ent voyage. The mate spun the yarn in these words : 
' ' We had just warped into the docks in Brooklyn to dis- 
charge, when a gang o' stevedores came over the side to 
rig the gear for unloadin'. * Where's the cargo pendant ?' 
says the boss stevedore. 'There it is,' says I, 'and 
there's a gantline, too,' I says, pointin' to a coil o' brand- 
noo manila. Well, they began for to rig the falls, while 
I went into the cabin for dinner. I seen one o' the fellers 
on the mainyard as I went in, but I didn't think no more 
about it for maybe ten minutes, when I heard a sickenin' 
crash, and out I jumped. Did you ever hear a man fall 
from aloft ? Hit's awful, sir. When I got out on deck 
there was a lot o' stevedores standin' around lookin' at 
somethin' on the main-'atch. I didn't want to look at 
what I knew it was, but I had to ; so I shoved my way 
through, and there lay the big, heavy man I'd seen on the 
mainyard. I didn't see anythin' wrong with him first off 
till I went round on t'other side, and there was his head 
cracked open just as if you'd dropped a mushmellon on 
the ground, and the hinsides was spattered all over the 
' atch cover. Plenty o' these here stevedores git hurt, and 
often it's the fault o' rotten gear, and then there's a case 
ag'in' the ship. But I'm too hold a bird to git took in like 
that, and I always gives 'em brand-noo rope." 

It is strange that more sailors are not killed by falling 
from aloft, for they not only appear to be, but really are, 
very careless, and two or three of our men have more than 
once just saved themselves from tremendous falls. Not 

294 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

long ago that handsome four-masted ship "Puritan" lost 
two men from the upper foretop-sail-yard, only two hun- 
dred miles from Sandy Hook, bound out to Hiogo ; and 
it is a serious matter to start an eighteen-thousand-mile 
voyage short two hands, when ships are allowed to go to 
sea in these days with twenty seamen instead of thirty. 
Latitude 22° 19' south ; longitude, 89° 15' west. 

August ii 

Still no change in anything but the thermometer, the 
instrument at mid-day showing 70° for the first time in 
many weeks. How superb, how glorious this weather 
surely is ! There is not too much sun to render sitting 
anywhere on deck at all unpleasant, yet we have enough to 
give us all the necessary observations ; the soft, rich south- 
east Trades come flowing smoothly over the quarter, while 
the ocean, the limitless South Pacific, lies motionless to the 
horizon, save for the brittle, little cat's-paws that spangle 
the royal blue of this great but placid ocean. Oh, the en- 
joyment of these balmy days ! Oh, the unutterable charm 
of the sea when for days together the ship moves serenely 
over its quiet surface with nothing to interrupt the pro- 
found peace to be obtained only in the solitude of the 

oceans ! 

" Oh ! the sea, the sea, the open sea, 
The pure, the fresh, the ever free. 
Without a mark, without a bound, 
It runneth the earth's wide regions round." 

Although everything in nature is so somnolent, not so 
the sailors ; all day long both watches have wrought like 
bees unbending the heavy, new sails and sending aloft the 
old fine-weather ones. The mending was finished yester- 
day, and the old, brownish-gray canvas looks very dull 
after the glare of the new duck and changes the whole ap- 

295 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

pearance of the ship. This is another point of usefulness 
in the donkey-engine, for steam was got up this morning, 
and the different sails were sent whizzing aloft like sacks of 
corn into a mill in a tenth of the time that would have been 
necessary in manual labor,. Nor be it supposed that the 
sails of a two-thousand-ton ship are feather weights, for our 
main-sail alone would tip the balance at eight hundred 
pounds. 

Last evening was the first occasion for at least two months 
on which we have been able to eat our 5. 15 o'clock supper 
without lamplight ; and it was a very grateful change to see 
the mellow rays of the setting sun streaming in at the open 
door, instead of the weak flicker of a very bad lantern. 
The cheerful air of the saloon was the cause of further very 
great volubility on the part of the mate, and he told the 
only humorous joke (is this tautology ?) that he has uttered 
on the passage. He said that his wife once asked him why 
it was that a captain couldn't keep tally of the size of his 
anchor so that he wouldn't have to weigh it every time he 
left a harbor. This, for Goggins, wasn't bad. 

Some days ago we finished "Farthest North," and so 
lucid and straightforward are his writings that we seem to 
know Fridjof Nansen personally. Three great character- 
istics stand forth pre-eminently in this book, — manliness, 
lack of affectation, and the total absence of the "I am." 
Latitude, 20° 23' south ; longitude, 91° 20' west. 

August 12 

Somewhat more cloudy to-day, and, since the morning 
watch, the Trades have been a good deal stronger, though 
last night the wind dropped to force 3, the average' for the 
week having been force 4. A noticeable fact is that even 
though the weather is so cool for this latitude, 70° at noon, 
the Cape pigeons are still with us ; I thought that they 

296 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

would have left us long since, for on the other voyage we 
saw our last pigeon in 30° south. One of the birds has 
been following us for weeks ; we can always pick him out 
by the fact that two of his right-wing quills are broken, 
which renders him conspicuous at quite a distance. 

The ship was pumped out with the donkey last night, 
after the sails were all bent, and having had no exercise for 
some days, the men having pumped only at four in the 
morning on account of sail-making, etc. , I was constrained 
to take hold of the handle-bar and follow the wheel around, 
which afforded even more exercise than the ordinary way. 
If the men maintain constantly thirty strokes to the minute 
it is good work ; whereas, with the donkey whirling the 
pumps around at more than sixty, the very exertion neces- 
sary to keep up with this speed is more than considerable. 
It is attended, too, with some danger of bodily harm ; for 
if your foot should slip on the wet deck and you did not 
instantly let go the handle-bar, you would either be jerked 
over the wheel and slammed down on the other side, or at 
the next revolution the bar would catch you under the chin 
and knock your lower jaw into bone-dust. The captain 
conjectured later on that he, too, needed some exercise, for 
he went down and worked away with ferocious abandon for 
perhaps five minutes, standing forth in the bright moon- 
light a most ridiculous object. For his short, plump, 
little body was taxed to the very utmost to keep up with 
the machine, and when his coat-tails whisked wildly 
about and he staggered now and then to keep his bal- 
ance, and his arms were jerked back and forth like 
shuttles, his coat up between his ears, he looked like John 
Gilpin in a cyclone. But funniest of all was his face. 
Whenever he exerts himself he always glares over at us to 
ascertain whether we are laughing at him or not ; and last 
night, as he gazed up at us over the whizzing bar, with 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

bursting cheeks and popping eyes, we thought we had 
never seen so ludicrous a sight ; even more droll than the 
other day while he was ' ' chinning' ' himself on the weather 
mizzen-sheerpole, when he peered over his shoulder at us 
with so distorted and writhing a countenance that we 
thought he was strangling. The skipper has a clipping- 
machine, with which he has almost denuded his head and 
face of their shaggy masses, and he insists that my own 
thick growth of hair and beard will be uncomfortable in 
hot weather, which is no doubt true ; but when he offered 
to * * run the machine over your whiskers, " as he expressed 
it, I thought it best to risk them as they are. Fancy 
reaping one's beard with clippers ! 

Mention has not been made of a certain dish that was 
placed upon the supper-table a few nights after the last pig 
had been killed. In one of the compartments of the rack 
was a plate of cold salt beef ; while in the other was some- 
thing that we thought was mighty good, judging from the 
fragrance that rose from beneath the cover. When the latter 
was removed, though, there lay revealed some queer-look- 
ing, black fragments that might have been anything rather 
than meat. It turned out to be pig's flesh right enough, 
but no one could guess what portions of his anatomy they 
were. Some of the objects were cylindrical ; these were 
sections of the creature's tongue. Others were very irreg- 
ular and unusual-looking ; these were the ears ; while a 
villanous mass that stood aloof from the rest was recom- 
mended by the skipper as the heart. " I think you'll like 
that," he observed, " though some do say there's too much 
muscle in it." 

The only really unsuccessful article manufactured by the 
merry little Cantonite is the pie-crust. It is very attractive 
and tempting to contemplate, which makes the reality harder 
to bear, for it is the only wholly indigestible article of food 

298 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

I ever came across ; you can even feel your teeth gliding 
smoothly over flakes of sticky lard scattered freely through 
it. Nothing but hydrochloric acid could have the least 
solvent effect upon it, Oh, yes, there is something else, — 
the captain's digestive organs. It will be recalled that 
when we first came on board he mentioned that he was a 
dyspeptic ; but goodness, gracious me ! it is a revelation 
to watch him denude meat or fruit pies of the armor-plate 
which invests them. He has another favorite dish, too, 
that he usually eats for breakfast ; it looked familiar at 
first, and we tried some, but instantly desisted. It was like 
large grains of sand ; the captain called it boiled hominy. 
Latitude, i8° 25' south ; longitude, 93° 55' west. 

August 13 

Fresh Trades, moderate sea, and dazzling skies were 
ours during this day, and we made more than two degrees 
of latitude and only five miles less than three of longitude. 
It is glorious, and everything has assumed a tropical as- 
pect : the sea, which undulates in swinging, dark-blue 
heaves, topped with sparkling froth ; and the air, which 
sleepily fans one with its soft, drowsy breath. Even the 
men have begun to show the influence of warmer climes, 
and duck and dungaree garments, long buried in the 
noisome and impenetrable mysteries of a sailor's chest, 
have suddenly bloomed forth like lilies in the spring. We 
have kept away a little to the westward of northwest so as 
to cross the line in about 116°. 

The pumping took place last night at 7.30 as usual, 
and I took a hand in it, alongside of that villain, Tim 
Powers (he of the wounded arm), while opposite to 
us rose and fell the cadaverous countenance of Paddy. 
Neither of the mates was within hearing distance, but 
no one spoke till Jimmie Rumps, the little bosun, called 

299 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

out * ' Let her rest a minute, ' ' and then Tim grew loqua- 
cious. 

"I'm afeard this is too long a v'yage for the lady, sor ; 
it's a sight o' sea." 

"Yes," I answered, "but it's not that that bothers us. 
We went out to Calcutta a couple of years ago and were 
at sea a hundred and twenty-seven days, so we knew it 
might be a hundred and fifty when we started. ' ' 

"Is thot so, sor," said Tim, with immense energy and 
interest, — "to Calcutta? A grand place. If yez don't 
mind, what was the name o' the ship?" 

"The 'Mandalore.' " 

' ' Oh, ' ' with great satisfaction and relief, ' ' an English 
ship, I'll bet yez had a different " 

" Shake her up again, boys," came from the main-hatch 
in Jimmie's thin little voice, and we turned to in silence till 
the mate's growl, "That'll do the pumps," put an end to 
the job. Then I asked Paddy how he was enjoying him- 
self. 

" To speak the truth," he answered, wearily, "I'd rather 
be in me grave than where I am, and this is the first time I 
ever said such a thing aboard ship." 

"Why, what's the matter?" I asked him. "You're al- 
ways skylarking with the cook and steward. ' ' 

"Well, what's the good in tryin' to make a row?" he 
philosophically demanded. 

" Don't you get enough to eat?" 

" Ye-e-e-s, but it's not what I've heard the mate tell you 
it's like. It's the drivin' we mind. But even that's not the 
worst of it ; you can't do a thing to please the mate or the 
old man. I dunno about Mr. Rarx ; you know I ain't in 
his watch, but I guess he's no better than most second 
mates, and I guess you know what that means. Work, 
work, work till you split yer finger-ends and then kicked 

300 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

around and thumped for a farmer. But I'm not makin' a 
row," he added, " only you asked me." 

Paddy, it must be said, is one of a rare species, a fair- 
minded sailor, which I discovered some time ago by his 
taking the mate's part when telling me of some trifling in- 
cident that happened on board. 

A couple of hours later, it being the second mate's watch, 
I asked him to tell me honestly why he liked American 
ships better than others, knowing that he has sailed in 
English vessels. 

"Well, the principal thing is the pay," he replied. 
"It's a good deal better in our ships than in foreigners; 
and the cabin table's generally better, too. Now, there's 
the British ship ' Fulwood' (a fine steel ship she is), I 
know they don't have soft bread on the table but once a 
week. ' ' It seemed to me that this would be quite a recom- 
mendation for the " Fulwood," for we have yet to see soft 
bread aboard ship much better than a worn-out sponge. 
But as for the wages, he is certainly right. Take the wages 
out of Hamburg as an example. The chief ofificers of the 
largest and fastest express steamers receive an amount 
equivalent to only sixty dollars of our money ! What sort 
of remuneration is that for a man of ability, in many cases 
a university graduate, a man second in authority aboard a 
ten-thousand-ton mail steamer rippling through the most 
crowded ocean in the world at twenty-one knots, with fif- 
teen hundred souls below-decks ? And it makes one posi- 
tively angry to think of a human being like Goggins, a 
densely ignorant and practically worthless creature, a per- 
son who can't work a traverse and get the same answer 
twice, receiving the same amount as mate of a wind- 
jammer ! Why, our steward, a Malay and a man of low 
intellect, has a good deal more than half as much wages as 
the first officer of the " Normannia" or "Augusta Vic- 

301 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

toria" ! It is positively incredible. Latitude, i6° 14' 
south ; longitude, 96° 30' west. 

August 14 

Another day, beautiful beyond expression. We never 
remember one in all our sea experience that was as fine. 
The sun poured down from a sky without a shred of cloud, 
and the Trades, still as fresh as ever, came singing so 
sweetly and cheerfully over the starboard quarter, that you 
were moved to lean back in your chair and think, ' ' Who 
is so happy as I ?" 

Even if the weather were not so delightful, our fine prog- 
ress would cover a multitude of grievances, for we have 
done five hundred and eighty-six miles in three days, a 
continuous average of eight knots. If credible, the nights 
are even finer than the days, and we sat late on deck last 
evening plunking away on the banjo, with everything 
steeped in the white light of the moon just past the full. 
So wonderfully brilliant were her beams that the shadows 
of the weather mizzen-rigging cast upon the immense con- 
cave expanse of the main-sail stood forth as from an arc- 
light. The serenity of such a night is almost unearthly. 

The first step in the rehabilitation of the ship for port has 
been progressing for two days, — the tarring down of the 
standing rigging. It is always the dirtiest job aboard ship, 
and the men are plastered from crown to toe with the 
sticky fluid. Next after this comes the painting, then the 
holy-stoning, and lastly the varnishing of what little bright 
work there is on the poop. 

When at the pumps last evening I learned that the men 
had been deeply impressed with my having assisted the 
donkey the other night. Murphy especially seemed to 
extract much amusement from the fact, and when I told 
him that some exercise was necessary to health, he said 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

that he never allowed that subject to bother him, adding, 
" There's one thing I'm just grand at, — lyin' in me bunk." 
His appearance substantiates this statement, for he is as 
round and rugged as he was three months ago ; I truly 
believe that he is the only man forward who doesn't bear 
the marks of either Cape Horn or a belaying-pin. On the 
other hand, Louis the Gaul is the saddest and most de- 
jected-looking man I ever saw. He has at all times that 
melancholy, dispirited look that one sees in the eyes of a 
captive ourang-outang. We talked together last night, and 
he informed me that this was his first American ship, and, 
please God, it would be his last. In very broken English, 
and in the deferential tones of a foreigner, he asked, ' ' Sair, 
do your laws allow men to be treated as ze men are treated 
aboard zees sheep ?" 

' ' No, ' ' I answered ; ' ' but so far there does not seem to 
have been any attempt made by the United States authori- 
ties to enforce the laws they have made." Jacquin didn't 
know enough English to go more deeply into the subject, 
and the talk drifted to the French navy, in which he has 
served sixteen years altogether ; and when I told him that 
I knew the ' ' Jean Bart' ' very well, his delight was child- 
like. Then he imparted a bit of rather astonishing news 
by saying that a man who has served for twenty years in 
the French navy (and it need not be all in one stretch) is 
pensioned by the government at three francs and a half per 
day. Besides possessing the second most powerful navy, 
France has some rattling fine square-riggers, such as the 
"La France," the largest sailing vessel in the world bar 
the "Potosi," the " Dunquerque," and the "Quevilly," 
the greatest tank sailing ship afloat, carrying one million 
gallons of oil in bulk between Philadelphia and Rouen. 

Our pigeons have left us, and well they might, consider- 
ing the latitude. What a distance they followed us ! 

303 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

From 30° south in one ocean to 16° south in the other, 
and from the forty-fifth to the one hundredth meridian. 
Quite a stretch of salt-water that. Mother Carey's chickens 
have come as a sort of compensation, hovering over our 
wake and darting down between the waves Hke swallows 
whizzing through the air after insects. Latitude, 14° 5' 
south ; longitude, 99° west. 

August 15 

Shall it be written that this day is the finest of all ? It is 
even so, and I pray the reader to bear with me, and to 
remember that if he were in my place he would no doubt 
give expression to the same thought. If the entire voyage, 
except that part lying in the Pacific between the south- 
ern tropic and the equator, were composed of gales and 
snow-storms, it seems as though these winds would atone 
for any amount of previous distress and inconvenience. It 
seems wonderful that the atmosphere can possess simul- 
taneously such exhilaration and such a smooth, luscious 
balminess. Oh, superb, glorious southeast Trades, thy 
equal is not in the world ! 

THE TRADE-WIND'S SONG. 

Oh, I am the wind that the seamen love, 

I am steady and strong and true ; 
They follow my track by the clouds above 

O'er the fathomless, tropic blue. 

For close by the shores of the sunny Azores 

Their ships I await to convoy ; 
When into their sails my constant breath pours, 

They hail me with turbulent joy. 

I bring them a rest from tiresome toil, 

Of trimming the sail to the blast ; 
For I love to keep gear all snug in the coil, 

And the sheets and the braces all fast. 
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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

From the deck to the truck I pour all my force, 

In spanker and jib I am strong ; 
For I make every course to pull like a horse, 

And worry the great ship along. 

As I fly o'er the blue I sing to the crew, 

Who answer me back with a hail ; 
I whistle a note as I slip by the throat 

Of the buoyant and bellying sail. 

I laugh when the wave leaps over the head. 
And the jibs through the spray-bow shine ; 

For an acre of foam is broken and spread 
When she shoulders and tosses the brine. 

Through daylight and dark I follow the bark, 

I keep like a hound on her trail ; 
I'm strongest at noon, yet under the moon 

I stiffen the bunt of her sail. 

The wide ocean through for days I pursue, 

Till slowly my forces all wane ; 
Then in whispers of calm I bid them adieu, 

And vanish in thunder and rain. 

Oh, I am the wind that the seamen love, 

I am steady and strong and true ; 
They follow my track by the clouds above 

O'er the fathomless, tropic blue. 

Thus has Thomas Fleming Day delightfully written of the 
flowing Trades. 

The men are busily engaged shearing away the great 
mops of hair that protected their heads in cold weather. 
Coleman (a man with a baneful eye and one who ought to 
be watched) seems to be the most accomplished tonsorial 
artist in the ship ; he has already operated on half a dozen 
men, and all hands but one have assumed that appearance 
of cleanliness usual among sailors in the tropics. The ex- 
ception is Tim, who, bar Mr. Goggins, is the dirtiest man 
on board. And now for a secret, profound and extraordi- 
2o 305 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

nary ! Let the peruser of these pages prepare himself for 
the concussion ; let him brace himself for the impending 
blow ! Mr. Goggins was seen to go forward to the galley 
an hour ago and return with a basin of water ! Can it be 
possible that he is about to submit his face and hands to 
the purification of a quart, a whole quart of fresh water ? 
But no ; this could not be. Let us banish the thought. 
He would perish of shock. Yet it must be for this that he 
fetched the water, for it is the only conceivable use to which 
he could put it, so we live in hopes of a change at supper. 
We have never anywhere come in contact with a person so 
irreclaimably obnoxious, and we can only wonder why the 
captain allows him to come to the table in such a condition. 
If a man wants to be dirty, it's his own personal affair; but 
when he becomes objectionable to others, steps ought to be 
taken to remedy the evil. 

By far the most agreeable persons on board are the 
steward and cook, not to mention David MacFoy, who is 
so much more pleasant and entertaining than the rest that 
he forms a class all by himself. The cook, though, is 
a jolly little man, and welcomed us with much homely 
attention when we invaded his precinct the other day to 
learn how to make curry properly. To start with, it is 
hard to get good curry-powder even in India, and that 
which we brought back with us from Calcutta in glass jars 
is not as good as that which can be bought in San Fran- 
cisco in square tins, that city being the only place in the 
United States where this particular sort can be obtained. 
But besides the necessity for good powder, there are cer- 
tain proportions of chopped onion, flour, butter, etc., to 
be added in its preparation, so that in order to learn how 
to make curry properly it is necessary to witness the 
process as performed by an Indian or a Chinaman. 

A rather interesting little fact to us to-day is that this is 

306 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

the first occasion on which three figures have ever been 
necessary to express our longitude. Latitude, 12° 5' 
south ; longitude, 101° 40' west. 

August 16 

Fear not, I do not intend to say how much more 
beautiful to-day is than yesterday, though I should like to, 
and it is hard to refrain from doing so in such weather ; 
but more than enough has been said on this subject. As 
a matter of fact, it is not quite so fine to-day, for the wind 
is dead aft, so that the after-sails are the only ones that do 
much good, and our run has not been quite up to the usual 
standard. 

This has been a grand cleaning day forward. Every 
movable object was taken out of the forward house and 
spread on the forecastle-head in the baking sun, and a 
curious sight did the men's old clothes and bedding present 
after lying mildewed and sodden for so many weeks. They 
lay in a wretched heap, the outside of which was composed 
of ancient, grimy bcdticks, frowsy, ill-looking quilts, and 
disreputable, mouldy mufflers. The forecastle itself was 
then swept cleanly out and thoroughly washed with soap 
and water. 

We have scores of snow-white birds with us now, about 
the size of common gulls, called bosuns. They are pretty 
creatures, with the most remarkable tails ; for, instead of 
the usual fan-shaped arrangement of feathers, their bodies 
seem to be elongated into pointed spines, so thin and sharp 
that it is almost impossible to see the extreme end. These 
birds are very noisy and keep up a harsh croaking, whence 
their name, as a bosun is supposed to live in a continual 
state of exhortation. On coming up from supper last 
night just before six, we saw a plump, little feathered 
creature bearing down upon us, which had a very familiar 

307 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

appearance ; and great was our surprise a moment later 
when we found that it was a Cape pigeon ! Imagine one 
within six hundred miles of the equator ! He must have 
been the last survivor of some vessel ahead of us, and, 
having abandoned her, concluded to stop and see if he 
couldn't find some scraps here. He looked very calm sail- 
ing about on motionless wing among the flocks of bosuns 
and Mother Carey's chickens that appear, in comparison, to 
make so great an effort at flying. This morning, though, 
we found that this, the last token of Cape Horn, had van- 
ished. Mr. Rarx, however, didn't seem much surprised 
at the appearance of the pigeon, and told us that he had 
seen them often in the harbor of Callao in 12° south. 

In a maritime paper that the second mate showed us to- 
day there was rather an interesting article concerning the 
naming of ships. According to it, French merchant-vessels 
are usually called after provinces, towns, wines, and vic- 
tories, but never after men, except the greatest men of 
French history. British ships are generally named after 
mythological characters, lakes, bays, glens, and cities ; 
German vessels after rivers, ports, poets, states, and char- 
acters in German literature. The Italians name theirs after 
characters in Italian literature, and names of hope, courage, 
enterprise, and religion. Spanish ships are almost always 
called after cities or the great commanders in Spanish his- 
tory. Norwegians and Swedes take the names of localities 
dear to them ; while American ships are given the names 
of their owners, relatives, friends, or "any old thing." 

The same paper contained a short dissertation on scurvy. 
I wonder how many people there are who know that, ac- 
cording to the latest researches, scurvy is not a disease 
produced by eating salt meat ? For many years Professor 
Torup, of the University of Christiania, has been studying 
this dreaded malady, scurvy, in all its forms, and about five 

308 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

years ago he proved to his own satisfaction that it is pro- 
duced by ptomaine poisoning incident to putrefaction in 
meats which had not been properly cured or preserved. 
Fridjof Nansen beheved in this theory, and when he was 
fitting out the ' ' Pram' ' for her Arctic voyage he took the 
most extraordinary precautions to have every can or barrel 
of preserved meat that went on board in the best possible 
condition, particularly the salt meats. The sequel to this 
care was that upon his return every man on board was in 
perfect health, and had been during the three years' voy- 
age ; this has been considered sufficient proof that it is 
poison in the meat, and not the salted meat itself, which 
produces that most ghastly of all diseases. Latitude, io° 
8' south ; longitude, 103° 56' west. 

August 17 

Still the same weather conditions, with a little more wind 
and, strange to tell, a heavy ground-swell from the south- 
west. Imagine how hard the gale must have been to drive 
the swell through thirty degrees of latitude, as it is not 
probable that a wind strong enough to raise such a sea 
would prevail north of 40° south. Soon, indeed, now we 
will enter upon the last quarter of our voyage, and that 
portion of the Pacific between the line and 40° north is at 
this season often responsible for more long passages than 
any other part of the Cape Horn voyage. Many a flyer 
has rolled booming across the equator on a record-breaking 
trip, struck the Doldrums north of the line like running into 
a stone wall, and added fifty days more to the passage be- 
fore sighting the Farallones. Just a year ago the " Shen- 
andoah," one of our fastest vessels, was forty-six days sail- 
ing up to ' Frisco from the equator. 

Last night in the first watch I had a long talk with the 
second mate. It seems that he and Mr. Goggins have had 

309 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

words several times lately, and as Mr. Rarx knows what 
we think of the mate, he unburdened his mind in a very- 
unusual manner. He says that Goggins would make a 
tip-top mate of a garbage- dumper, but that he isn't fit for 
a geordie brig, much less aclipper ship, or what passes for 
a clipper in these days. " But the worst of it is, he's no 
seaman ; and when my watch on deck comes ain't there a 

h of a fine mess, and I've got to do it all over again. 

And look at his men, the state he's got 'em into ; there's 
not a man-jack o' the whole lot that'll turn a finger for him, 
with his shoutin' and hollerin' and swearin' . I wonder the 

captain shipped such a old cripple, for he knew 

him before. I'm gettin' bloody sick o' the voyage. What's 
the matter with the mate is that he came in through the 
cabin-windows instead o' the hawse-pipes." 

All this and much more did Mr. Rarx pour forth, work- 
ing himself into quite a rage as he went along, and embel- 
lishing his discourse with regular handspike oaths. 

In the American merchant service a mate always rises to 
that position through the various grades from ordinary 
seaman up ; but on British ships boys (frequently gentle- 
men's sons) sign for three years as apprentices, live aft, and 
are taught navigation and seamanship perfectly and practi- 
cally by captains who are often privileged to write R. N. R. 
after their names, paying, I think, about one hundred 
guineas for this instruction. When this course is over they 
are fit for second mate, and in another two years pass for 
mate and then master. How different in America, where 
the law requires no examination for a man before he goes in 
command of a sailing vessel ! How Mr. Goggins could rise 
to be mate from a cabin-boy without passing through the 
forecastle is quite marvellous, as he has always sailed in 
Yankee ships. He is a very obscure individual, though, and 
no doubt landed in the cabin in some inscrutable manner. 

310 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Mr. Rarx, on the other hand, would make a good mate 
of a large yacht were it not for his temper, which is very 
violent, and he has a way of harboring up revenge for petty 
trifles. We have seen more bad treatment of the men at 
the hands of Goggins ; but my belief is that the second 
mate does considerable hammering on his own account the 
other side of the forecastle-house. It is a curious fact that 
so many bright men stick at second mate all their lives, 
never rising any higher, simply because they have never 
learned the use of a sextant, or how to copy figures from 
an epitome, for that's all that navigation amounts to as 
carried on at sea. This is the great dividing line between 
first and second mate, which a man like Rarx could over- 
come in a few weeks of application. When a second mate 
has passed his thirty-fifth year his pristine ardor and zeal 
begin to wane, for by that time his aspirations for improve- 
ment are not so keen as they were ; and if he is not a mate 
shortly afterward, he never will be. Similarly, when a 
mate has passed that age and never has had a command, 
he settles down in the capacity of chief officer, and by the 
time he is forty he performs his duties thereafter with no 
more ambition than the ox that hauls the plough. Many 
ship-masters refuse to take either a mate or a second mate 
who is more than thirty-five years old. Reference is made 
to sailing craft only, as men in the transatlantic mail service 
not infrequently reach fifty years before succeeding to one 
of the greyhounds. In the early days of Yankee clippers 
scores of men went out as master at twenty-one, and ca- 
pable ones at that, as the records show. 

Whenever there is a pause in the conversation at meals 
now, Captain Scruggs always fills in with some remarks 
about Nansen (or Naysen, as he always calls him) and Arctic 
expeditions. It is remarkable with what regularity he does 
this, and the mate as regularly asks in a grieved tone, ad- 

3" 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

dressing no one in particular, ' ' And will yer tell me wot 
good hit's a-goin' to do when they do find the pole?" 
Then the skipper indignantly asks him if he supposes that 
an expedition is idle all the time in the ice ; to which the 
mate replies, "Well, I know there's nothin' to be found 
out about the land up there, cause there hain't none." 
And then they go at it like a pair of quarrelsome cats, till 
suddenly the old man fetches the table a whack and cries 
out, " Very well, sir; you're not here to argue; that'll 
do, sir, ' ' in his fiercest tones. At such times he looks like 
the ogre of childhood. These set-tos are extremely amusing, 
though, for neither knows anything about the subject, and 
the air throbs with ' ' magnetic poles, " " Arctic circles, ' ' 
and ' ' phemomemoms. ' ' By the way, it is interesting to 
know that England held the record for the highest latitude 
for two hundred and seventy-five years, or since Hudson's 
voyage in 1607 to 1882, when the record passed to the 
United States, to be wrested from her thirteen or fourteen 
years later by the Norwegians. Let us hope that Peary, 
whom Sir Clements Markham calls ' ' the greatest living ice- 
traveller," will regain what we have lost, and this time 
succeed in attaining that geographical point, the quest of 
which has resulted in the loss of such splendid men as 
Franklin and de Long. 

Almost all of the painting aloft has been finished except 
the lower masts. The topmast and lower mast-heads all 
glitter in the glory of a coat of dark reddish-brown, and the 
rigging fairly scintillates in the sun in its dress of glossy 
tar. Mr. Goggins says that he well remembers the first 
wire-rigged sailing vessel seen in the United States. She 
was a full-rigged London brig, and when she arrived in 
New York she looked so neat and trim aloft that even the 
old shell-backs, who doubted the efficacy of wire, were 
obliged to admit that in appearance, anyhow, she was away 

312 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

ahead of the old style. ' ' But you wait till she strikes a 
gale o' wind," said these Solons, "and then you'll see." 
And they didn' t have long to wait, for on her return voyage 
to England she was totally dismasted three hundred miles 
west of Cape Clear. Latitude, 8° 19' south ; longitude, 
105° 40' west. 

August 18 

A still fresher breeze to-day, but it is dead aft. But we 
are moving so steadily in the same direction, northwest, 
that we slip through the water without appreciating how 
fast we are going ; and as each noon puts us two degrees 
farther north, we ought to cross the line next Saturday. 
Gradually, too, we have been gliding into warmer weather, 
and last night we experienced, for the first time in the Pa- 
cific, the tremendous heat of the equatorial regions. There 
is something inexpressibly depressing to many people after 
a few days' sojourn in the tropics ; something that seems 
to drain the vitality. Personally I have never experienced 
this feeling, and exercise should never be omitted in hot 
weather by robust persons, although it should not be severe, 
and ought never be taken when the sun is more than ten 
degrees above the horizon. 

This morning as we were hanging over the side in the 
shade, watching the copper slipping smoothly through the 
water, while a perfect cataract of cool wind poured over us 
out of the lee side of the cross-jack, we saw a disk of vivid 
green resting upon the surface of the clear, blue depths. 
We thought it was a cluster of sea-grass till the captain 
said, " Hello, there's our first turtle." So it proved to be, 
and as the ship passed within a few feet of him we had an 
excellent view of his broad, corrugated back, fully three 
feet across ; he was reposing in peaceful slumber as we slid 
past, with head retracted, but feet and tail extended like a 

3^3 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

starfish, and he looked immeasurably comfortable, resting 
so placidly on the water, indolently rising and falling in the 
quiet sea ; and we envied him, lying there in his clear, cool 
element. Latitude, 6° 38' south ; longitude, 107° 44' west. 

August 19 

One hundred days at sea, and we celebrated the circum- 
stance in real old-fashioned, long-approved Yankee style. 
Last evening, immediately after supper, we went up on the 
cabin-house and sat down to enjoy the sunset. All at once 
we heard angry voices forward, and then Louis, the French- 
man, shot head first out of the lee door of the carpenter- 
shop, followed by the massive body of Chips himself, who 
held in his hand a bludgeon. They were both in a passion. 
Louis dropped his hat as he flew through the doorway, and 
as he stooped to pick it up, smack ! came the truncheon 
upon his flank. Then Louis straightened up, shot out his 
fist, and smote Chips painfully on the chin ; the latter 
returned the blow, and in a second they were at it tooth 
and nail. Now, Louis is a very active, powerful man, and 
in a long spell he would, no doubt, wear the other out, but 
in close quarters he was no match for the carpenter's weight ; 
for a few seconds Louis prevailed, but Chips recovered, and, 
being a foot taller than the Gaul, he seized him by the 
throat and backed him over towards the rail, against which 
he caused Louis's head to come into such frequent and vio- 
lent contact that we could hear the tattoo where we sat. 
Then Louis began his national, low habit of kicking, but 
was unsuccessful in his contemptible trick, and they were 
still in the throes of battle when the mate appeared and 
cautiously hauled them apart. The shirts of both were in 
shreds and the Frenchman was in a fearful rage. By and 
by Chips came aft to supper ; he bore no facial marks of the 
encounter save that he was very pale. 

314 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

At seven o'clock I went up to one of the men, Charlie, 
and asked him what the row was about. He said that, as 
far as he knew, Louis went into the carpenter-shop to get 
some kerosene to cleanse the paint from his hands, and, 
having no business in there without permission. Chips had 
thrown him out. The carpenter, by the way, hasn't been 
fair to the men lately with their water. One day off Cape 
Horn, when he went into the forecastle with the men's allow- 
ance, one of them said to him, thereby exhibiting an unusu- 
ally good spirit, "Say, Chips, there's no good o' givin' us all 
that water in cold weather, we can't drink it." Then when 
the hot weather came and the men grew thirsty. Chips re- 
fused to give them more than they asked for off the Horn, 
though each man is entitled here to four quarts per day. 

Well, then, we continued to sit where we were till after 
dark, discussing the event ; presently eight bells went, 
MacFoy came aft with, "The watch is aft, sir," to which 
the mate replied with the usual growl, "All right ; relieve 
the wheel and lookout," and the starboard watch came on 
deck. At about 8. 15, in the midst of that deep, wonderful 
silence that pervades a sailing ship at night, we were star- 
tled by loud voices up near the main-mast, just where we 
couldn't tell, as it was pitch dark ; immediately afterward, 
however, we recognized the voices of Mr. Rarx and Louis, 
which quickly rose to shouting. The first sentence that 
we caught was from the second mate, the words coming in 
jerks, as though he had a man by the neck and was shaking 
him : " So . . . you were in there . . . tryin' to steal oil 

... eh ? You French . ' ' To 

which Louis answered in a loud voice, " I deed not, sair." 
Then came another broadside from Rarx, and again, " Et 
ees not so, sair. ' ' 

At this point several voices broke in, and the old man 
then ran down the weather poop-ladder to see what was 

315 



BY WAY dF CAPE HORN 

the matter. Suddenly a death-like silence reigned for a 
few moments ; then came a sound of scuffling, and all at 
once Rarx cried out, " God ! He's stuck me, cap'n !" 

"What's that?" yelled the skipper. 

"The damned French hound's put a knife into me, sir !" 

Paralysis instantly fell upon all hands. The tension was 
fearful, but was relieved somewhat by the steward's open- 
ing the port cabin door, allowing a broad path of light to 
stream forth into the darkness, which had hitherto rendered 
the affair mysterious and horrible. It fell upon a group 
of startled men by the main-mast, with the skipper in the 
centre supporting the second mate, while the latter, press- 
ing his hands above his left hip, shuffled painfully aft. He 
was led into the cabin, where he sat down upon the coal- 
box, and I pulled up his shirt and exposed the wound. It 
was a wide gash in his side, a little to the front of and just 
above the pelvis. The blow had evidently been aimed at 
the groin, but in the darkness Louis had slightly missed. 
Rarx's clothes were somewhat blood-soaked, but the flow 
had ceased, showing that probably none of the large ar- 
teries had been punctured. Still, there was more than a 
probability that he had been dangerously, nay, fatally, hurt, 
and even at that moment might be bleeding to death in- 
ternally, and we could not tell whether or no any of the 
vital organs had been touched. The skipper ran at once 
for listerine, and together we contrived to bind up the 
wound and put the man to bed. Then the old man 
stepped out on the main-deck and shouted, — 

' ' Send that Frenchman aft, Mr. Goggins, and put the 
irons on him." 

The mate went gingerly up to Louis, who, in the midst 
of a knot of men, was raving like a maniac, and, seizing 
him gently by the arm, led him aft. Oh, how that man 
raged and blasphemed ! He was like an angry bull, and 

316 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

his loud voice rang out far over the peaceful ocean and 
echoed and reverberated high up overhead in the hollows 
of the upper sails. 

" Did you hear what 'ee call me, sair?" in shrill tones. 
"I, who have bose fazair and mozair. I we el not stand 
zat, sair, I die fairst ; you can keel me, sair. And I, I 
stuck 'eem ; I would cut 'eem again, sair, or any one else, 
that call me zat name. I am a man, sair. ' ' This last 
in a perfect shriek. 

Never a word said the old man. Then Louis turned on 
him, and, insolently sneering, his head thrown back scorn- 
fully and one foot advanced, he cried, — 

" And you, Capitaine Scruggs ! What are you ? I have 
been to sea twenty year and nevair saw a capitaine like 
you before. You starve us ! you starve us ! Why do you 
starve us? When we fairst left New York we 'ad plentee 
to eat, zee food was waste, and now for seex wicks we 
have had nossing at all. Bah ! Peef ! You, a man like 
you, a capitaine !" 

At this juncture the skipper said abruptly, but without 
the least show of anger, for which great credit is due him, — 

' ' Where' s the knife you cut the second mate with ?' ' 

" Where zee knife, eh ? Here zee knife. Now you see 
it, now you don't. Ha, ha !" And he jerked it over the 
side into the sea. 

All this time the mate was fussing with the irons, trying 
to find a pair that would encircle his great wrists ; but at 
length a pair was found, locked on his arms, and he was 
led aft to the wheel-house, several other pairs of irons in 
the mate's hand clanking mournfully as he walked. Into 
the after-division where the tiller works Louis was hustled, 
and his hands were then fastened with a rope to a ring- 
bolt in a carlin overhead, so that he had to stand upright 
all night. 

317 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

And what was my wife doing all this time? When 
Rarx had cried that he had been stabbed she had fled to 
her room, locking herself in, and sat shivering until curi- 
osity compelled her to open the door on a crack and peep 
out ; and when Louis and ' the mate stumbled along the 
alley- way by our windows, it sounded to her like the tramp 
of a ball-and-chain gang. 

As soon as Louis was secured we turned our attention to 
the second mate again, and after reaching the conclusion 
that there was no internal hemorrhage, or, at least, none 
that our slight skill could detect, we drew the edges of the 
wound together, into which you might easily have thrust a 
plum, securing them with adhesive plaster, and then bound 
up the cut with listerine-soaked cloths. Poor fellow ! he 
had a bad night. Two heavy doses of laudanum and a 
five-grain opium pill had no more effect on him than so 
much nitre ; and it was not until shortly before eight this 
morning that he dozed away, only to be aroused by the 
clang of the huge breakfast-bell just without his door. He 
is suffering dreadfully, has a high fever, and has conceived 
the notion that he is in slivers inside. 

At 8.15 this morning the after wheel-house door was 
opened, and the captain asked Louis if there was anything 
that he wanted, to which the Frenchman answered by turn- 
ing his back with a shrug. Then the skipper said to him, 
" I just came to tell you that you're no longer a seaman 
aboard this ship. You're a prisoner, and will remain so 
till I hand you over to the authorities in San Francisco." 
Then breakfast, consisting of burgoo, hard bread, salt beef, 
and coffee, was taken to him, and he was left alone till 
one o' clock, when a pannikin of soup was carried to him, 
which he refused, although he ate another piece of salt 
beef and a huge piece of soft bread. The manacles are 
knocked off when he eats, after which they are locked on 

3iS 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

again, and he is then left utterly alone. He is not allowed 
to enter the forecastle upon any pretext, and when it is 
necessary for him to go forward, the mate follows immedi- 
ately behind. 

At a little before nine this morning, as I was reading by 
the wheel-house, Paddy, who was steering, leaned out and 
whispered, "Look, the old man's goin' to read the riot 
act." I glanced forward, and saw that the ship's company 
had been mustered aft on the main-deck, with the captain 
glaring at them, but not in the least excited. I reached 
the break of the poop just in time to hear what it was 
about. Said the skipper : "I hear you men are finding 
fault with the food and say Pm starving you ; is that so?" 

Tim, with a villanous twist, came forward, and said, 
" It is, sor ; and we don't get enough wather to wash our 
hands wid," holding out two dirty paws. 

"Not enough to wash your hands with, eh?" said the 
old man. ' ' It looks to me as if there was plenty of water 
over the side, and I believe you've got enough salt-water 
soap. Is that all you' ve got to say ?' ' 

" It is, sor," said Tim. 

"Is there any one else in the same fix?" asked the 
skipper. 

Coleman then stepped out and said the same thing about 
the food and water. Every one else seemed to find some- 
thing mighty interesting in the deck-seams. 

' ' All right. Mr. Goggins, you will see that the men are 
put on government allowance from now till I see fit to stop 
it. You can go forrad," he added to the men. 

It must be explained that on Yankee ships it is not cus- 
tomary to put men on the allowance prescribed by law as 
it is on foreign ships. On some of our ships the men are 
fed very well and on others miserably. We began here by 
giving all sorts of extra things to the men, apple-sauce, 

319 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

cheap jam, butter, etc., and when these "dehcacies" ran 
out the men thought it strange, and then by and by, ac- 
cording to some of the most trustworthy of the sailors, the 
bread and meat themselves began to grow less and less. 
It would be much better- if long- voyage American ships 
would adhere to the government allowance, and not give 
the men sweets one month and then suddenly stop them 
entirely ; such a course always breeds discontent ; and I 
have noticed that the mates have not been able to get any 
more work out of the men here even when they were luxu- 
riating in their jam and butter, etc. , than they did on the 
English " Mandalore, " where everything was weighed out 
to the ounce, and no ' ' fixins. ' ' 

The serenity that ought to accompany a sea- voyage has 
been savagely dissipated, for go on deck and approach the 
wheel-house, and you instinctively recoil when you think 
that it perhaps contains a murderer. Go below to meals, 
and the smile vanishes from your face as your thoughts 
revert to the wounded man groaning in his dingy cavern. 
Over the ship hovers a silence such as falls upon a com- 
munity when Death stalks through its midst. The men 
look grave, the mate gives his orders in low tones, and 
instead of the ringing chanties, the halliards are tautened 
up to a mufifled ' ' oh ho' ' ; and the pumps would revolve 
in utter silence but for their own grinding clank. 

As for the day, it was magnificent, and we continue to 
surge along over a sparkling ocean. Latitude, 4° 30' 
south ; longitude, 109° 58' west. 

August 20 

After the excitement and turmoil incident to such an 
affair as happened yesterday, or rather the night before 
last, it is hard to get at the real facts of the case until the 
agitation calms down. Therefore it was not until a little 

320 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

while ago that we learned the truth about the row between 
Louis and Chips. It appears that before stowing away 
the heavy suit of sails when they had been unbent, some 
slight repairs were necessary on the lower foretop-sail. 
They were completed day before yesterday, and the sail 
was carefully rolled and tied up. The men were ordered 
to rinse the paint off their hands with kerosene, furnished 
them by the carpenter, so that they should leave no finger- 
marks on the white duck. Afterward, for some unknown 
reason, Louis wanted more oil, and personally went into 
the carpenter-shop to get it. Now, it is one of the strictest 
rules aboard all ships that no sailor shall ever enter the 
carpenter-shop in the absence of Chips ; and when the 
latter, no doubt in an ugly mood, found Louis in there, he 
threw him out. After the fight the Frenchman was in a 
blind passion, and there were probably two reasons for his 
taking summary vengeance upon the second mate. In the 
first place, I have often seen him flush up with anger at 
the way in which some of the men have been treated, this 
being his first American ship ; and he probably determined 
that if either mate laid hand on him unlawfully, he would 
show them that there was at least one man forward with 
the courage to defend himself. The second mate took 
him by the throat (Rarx admits that) while he, Louis, was 
quietly standing by the chicken-coop cutting off a plug of 
tobacco, being at the time perfectly well behaved, and the 
Frenchman, remembering his comrades, used his knife, 
ready in his hand. In the second place, the name which 
the second mate called him was the last straw. English, 
German, Scandinavian, and American sailors do not seem 
to care what they are called by the mates ; but any one of 
the violent Latin races always resents this epithet with all 
the fury of which they are possessed. It is inconceivable, 
anyhow, why Rarx should have stirred up the row again. 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Chips ejected Louis from his shop. All right ; he is there 
to guard that part of the ship, and did right in heaving 
him out of it ; yet the second mate must needs rake it all 
up again two hours afterward, when he didn't even see the 
original disturbance. Gradually I am beginning to lean 
toward the belief that Rarx and Louis have had a grudge 
against each other for a long time, and mayhap that little 
incident in the South Atlantic while the sails were being 
shifted, during which Rarx nearly threw the Frenchman 
off one of the mizzen-top-sail-yards, was not so much of an 
accident as it seemed. 

By far the gravest question now is, was the knife that did 
the deed rusty ? It was a sheath-knife such as all sailors 
carry in a little leathern scabbard by the hip. It must have 
been fairly bright, though, as there has been a great deal of 
use lately for sheath-knives in cutting away old chafing 
gear, and therein lies Rarx's salvation. His sufferings are 
very great now ; at long intervals he is somewhat easier, 
but he groans almost continuously in what seems to be ex- 
cruciating agony, his breath comes in gasps, and perspira- 
tion oozes from his face in large beads, as he wallows and 
squirms in his narrow, hot bunk, almost crying aloud some- 
times when the ship rolls. 

And what of Louis ? He has been removed to the laza- 
rette and fastened, still handcuffed, to a thick stanchion. 
There he sits brooding in the gloom, for no light penetrates 
the apartment save by the booby-hatch that leads into it, 
secured with a chain heavy enough for a maintop-sail- 
sheet. He has, however, plenty of air and good food, in- 
cluding soft bread, which is no longer given to the men ; 
but there is not space enough for him to stand upright in, 
a kneeling posture being the most elevated that he can 
assume. Still, there's nothing else to do with him, for he 
certainly couldn't be allowed at large. Three times a day 

322 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

the mate carries him his food, liberates him when he has 
finished and marches him forward, walking about five feet 
behind him, his hand gripping a pistol in his hip-pocket, 
ready for the least false move on the part of the French- 
man or any one else. The latter' s face is a study as he 
walks rapidly forward, his heavy, dark brows hanging 
sulkily over flashing eyes which he never raises from the 
deck. Through the midst of his shipmates he strides 
silently with bare feet, his immovable face shrouded in deep 
scowls, looking neither to the right nor left. They make 
way for him with averted heads as he passes through, fol- 
lowed by his jailer, and the men close up again as after the 
passage of a blood-hound in leash. Then in a moment 
back again he hurries along the deck, mounts the poop- 
ladder, descends into the dusky recess, holds out his hands, 
the irons are snapped on, with the chains between, and he is 
left for another five or six hours to muse in solitude upon his 
bloody deed. His face shows as yet no indication of relent- 
ing ; but as day after day drags on in all its awful loneliness 
even his nature, however dauntless, must at last succumb to 
that most terrible of all punishments, solitary confinement. 
As for the rest of the men, they have recovered some- 
what and go about their work much as usual, bar the 
chanties, and I had lately another chance for a word with 
honest Paddy. ' ' What do you think of this affair ?' ' I 
asked him. "Well, I can't say I'm surprised," he an- 
swered. "How is that?" wishing to sound him. "Mr. 
Rarx has always seemed a pretty decent fellow." " Decent 
fellow !" he replied. " Say, look here, I didn't say much 
about him to you the other day, but I'll tell you what now, 
there's not a single man in the fo'c's'l what' 11 say a good 
word for him, 'ceptin' that he's a fine sailor-man. His tem- 
per's hell," he went on, and I expected to hear of some 
more fine examples of discipline, for we were on the fore- 

323 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

castle-head and not likely to be seen, when ' ' Come, come, 
Paddy, this ain't the dog-watch," broke sharply in, and we 
perceived the stalwart shoulders of the bosun rise above 
the ladder, which, of course, ended the conversation. 

My wife is rapidly recovering from her nervousness, 
having in this respect exhibited almost miraculous recu- 
perative powers. What a trying, not to say a terrible, posi- 
tion for a woman to be placed in ! What a miserable ter- 
mination to a voyage undertaken solely for pleasure ! 
Indeed, though, while we have enjoyed the sea as much, 
perhaps more, than we ever did before, there have been 
so many adverse conditions on board with which we have 
had to contend, that, after all, this is a more or less ap- 
propriate termination to the passage. When Louis was 
first put into the lazarette my wife didn't like it at all, as 
our room adjoins it, though separated by a stout partition 
or bulkhead ; we have allayed her fears, though, and we 
never hear so much as the clink of the chain from the 
Frenchman, even at night. It is fortunate that our rela- 
tives have no suspicion of our position. 

We are now permanently three hands short, for old Neil- 
sen is still so seedy that his most arduous tasks are making 
sennit and mats and pointing and putting Turk's-heads on 
ropes. At noon we found that a strong southwesterly cur- 
rent had retarded us, and we are not as far north by half a 
degree as we supposed. Precisely the same weather con- 
ditions prevail, this great ocean being still in a state of 
absolute rest. The wind is now east ; an advantage, as it 
allows every sail to draw. Latitude, 2° 49' south ; longi- 
tude, 112° 30' west. 

August 21 

Mr. Rarx is somewhat improved, we think, and this 
afternoon he is not in so much pain. When I went in to 

324 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

see him yesterday I was shocked at his appearance. His 
face was swollen and puffed and glistening with perspira- 
tion ; he twitched suddenly in jerks and was so exhausted 
that a dozen consecutive words wore him completely out. 
The worst of all, however, was his rambling speech, due to 
five-grain doses of opium ; these seem to me to be prodigi- 
ous amounts to administer, and perhaps account for the 
excessive cardiac palpitation from which he suffers. Dur- 
ing breakfast this morning he had a dreadful spasm of pain, 
and we could hear him crying, " Oh, oh, oh, oh !" and it 
was miserable to see this powerful man stricken down at 
one blow. 

Louis still conducts himself with the grim indifference of 
a Sioux Indian ; his chains have been double-riveted and 
shackled, and an idea of the massiveness of the gear may 
be obtained when it is said that the stanchion to which he 
is secured is five inches square and only four feet high, that 
being the amount of head-room in the lazarette. The skip- 
per has to stand the second mate's watches now, which is 
hard on him, as he is suffering acutely from rheumatism. 
Lately, or since we took the southeast Trades, he has been 
most astonishingly affable. We don't know what to think 
of him ; his argumentativeness has disappeared and he 
insists on conversing pleasantly at meals ; in short, he has 
assumed a gracious benignity as surprising as it is welcome, 
and it proves that he knows quite well how to talk and act, 
and that his surly manner is simply the result of a morose 
temper. I expect that he wants to leave a good impression 
on our minds at the end of the voyage. 

Our southwesterly current gave rise to a most astounding 
lie from the mate, to illustrate what he believes to be the 
erratic movements of the currents in the North Pacific. 
The incident happened on a bark in the San Francisco- 
Honolulu trade, of which he was mate at the time. This 

325 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

vessel carried no freight, but did a large passenger trade, 
and always carried cows along for fresh milk. ' ' Well, sir, 
wot I'm a-tellin' yer of 'appened onct on the houtward 
passage ; one of our cows took sick and died, and of course 
we 'ad to 'eave 'er over the side, which we did in the north- 
east Trades. We reached 'Onolulu all right, and started 
back ag'in for San Francisco, when one mornin' in the 
Trades the cap' n he says to me, • Mr. Goggins, ' says he, 
'wot's that?' 'Wot'swot?' says I. 'That there,' says 
'e, a-pointin' over the weather-quarter. I looked, sir, and 
strike me blind if there warn't the body o' that cow, and 
we two 'undred mile to the north' ard o' where we chucked 
'er hoverboard. She'd drifted there nearly dead ag'in the 
Trades in twenty-seven days." When I told this singular 
experience to the old man, he said, "The principal thing 

that's the matter with Goggins is that he's a d old 

fool." This being the first occasion on which I ever knew 
a captain to omit the handle to a mate's name. 

However, Captain Scruggs himself told us a strange 
story later ; but as he is painfully accurate and never en- 
larges on facts or figures, it is most likely true. He was 
bound from Seattle to Manila, master of the "Judas 
Dowes," and while rolHng down through the southeast 
Trades he fell in with a German ship which asked for the 
longitude. They had a little talk together with the flags, 
and it turned out that she was from Vancouver for Callao 
and that she was then one hundred and nine days out. 
Nor was this the most remarkable part of the affair, for she 
was thirteen hundred miles out of her course ! Her chro- 
nometers were out and she had been drifting about in the 
strong currents for weeks, working by dead-reckoning. 
But if this is extraordinary, what shall be said of the voyage 
of the ship ' ' Ravenscrag, ' ' which arrived at Callao not 
many months ago, one hundred and eighty-four days from 

326 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

New Whatcom ! This place with the musical name is on 
Puget Sound, so that the distance which the "Ravens- 
crag' ' had to traverse was not more than six thousand miles 
in a straight line, yet so extremely difficult is it to make the 
coast of South America on account of the Trades that she 
was half a year at sea. Sailing ships have to practically 
cross the Pacific before they can fetch a port on the Peru- 
vian coast. Another instance of the delay of this voyage is 
afforded by one of our rear-admirals, retired, who told me 
that he was once almost one hundred days from San Fran- 
cisco to Callao in a training-ship, which shows that the long 
passage of the " Ravenscrag" was not due to indolence 
and bad navigation. The latter vessel's voyage was infi- 
nitely more extraordinary in comparison than the " T. F. 
Oakes's" passage of two hundred and fifty-nine days from 
Hong-Kong to New York. 

It is a pity that vessels have to stand so far to the west- 
ward here when bound north in order to get the northeast 
Trades, but unless they do they will fall into a great calm 
region that extends from the Central American coast to the 
one hundred and twentieth meridian, and which reaches as 
far north as the thirtieth parallel. This is also a cyclonic 
zone, which, at certain seasons (particularly in September), 
renders the voyage from Panama to San Francisco a very 
dangerous one even for large steamers. 

The longest voyage that it is possible to make both in 
time and distance is that from Great Britain or New York 
to the Japanese and Chinese ports during the northeast 
monsoon, when vessels sail completely around Australia 
and the whole length of the Asian coast to 35° north 
rather than beat up through the Sunda Straits, the total 
length of the voyage being twenty-one thousand miles. 
The following recent passages taken from London "Fair- 
play' ' serve to show the duration of the voyage in days : 

327 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 



'Ladakh," New York to Hong-Kong . . . 
'Falls of Dee," New York to Hong-Kong . 
'John R. Kelley," New York to Hong-Kong 
'Torrisdale," New York to Hong-Kong . . 
' Emily F. Whitney," New York to Shanghai 
' Musselcrag," New York to Shanghai . . . 
'Ancona," New York to Shanghai . . . 
'Eureka," Philadelphia to Nagasaki . . . 

George Curtis," Philadelphia to Nagasaki 
■Vimeira," Philadelphia to Hiogo . . . . 

Englehorn," Philadelphia to Yokohama . 



i8i 
182 
182 
190 
197 
197 
240 
186 
197 
189 
180 



The "Whitney," "Curtis," "Kelley," and "Eureka" 
are American ships, their average being one hundred and 
ninety days ; the rest are English, with an average of one 
hundred and ninety-four, the miserable passage of the 
" Ancona' ' having spoiled the record of the Britishers. It 
will be seen, however, that not one of the ships went out in 
less than six months ; compare this with the run of the 
American bark ' ' St. James, ' ' from New York to Shanghai, 
of ninety-eight days in the southwest monsoon, which was 
not a very wonderful passage. 

The weather is as usual, save that there is a great in- 
crease in the humidity. Latitude, i ° south ; longitude, 
114° 40' west. 

August 22 

North latitude ! At nine o' clock this morning we crossed 
the equator in 115° 35' west, and once more entered the 
Northern Hemisphere. Our passage of one hundred and 
three days from New York to this position is an average 
one, and we have yet twenty-seven days in which to reach 
San Francisco without breaking what the skipper says is 
his record of never having been at sea one hundred and 
thirty days. 

A remarkable circumstance in connection with this part 

328 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

of the world is the low temperature of both sea and air ; 
the former at noon was 77° and the latter only 70°, or 
about the same as the sea in August at New York. In the 
Indian and Atlantic Oceans the sea temperature at the 
equator is 84° and the air 86°. 

We certainly made a fine run up from Cape Horn. Four 
weeks ago to-morrow we were in 60° south, and have, 
therefore, sailed thirty-six hundred miles of latitude and 
forty degrees of longitude in twenty-seven days. But the 
wind has been very, very light for twenty-four hours. We 
did only one hundred and one miles and just did contrive 
to wriggle across the line. Perhaps this is only a light 
spell in the Trades, as this wind at this season ought to 
carry us seven or eight degrees farther north. 

Sufficient unto the day, etc. The memory of that mis- 
erable night last Wednesday is already beginning to grow 
dim. Mr. Rarx is improving ; the terrific palpitation of 
his heart has ceased, and he has had much natural sleep 
lately. He did a strange thing last night in the middle 
watch : he got up out of his bed and sat for an hour in a 
chair ; his heart was much relieved, he said, and he cer- 
tainly does look better. 

This being Sunday I had a long talk in the afternoon 
watch with MacFoy, who confirmed what Paddy said of 
Rarx's temper. Then happening to mention Coleman, 
the bosun remarked, "He's been pretty quiet since Mr. 
Rarx laid him out." "Laid him out when?" I asked. 
" Why, didn't you know he near killed him when we were 
towin' to sea ? No ? Oh, dear ! We were haulin' aft 
the foresheet and Coleman turned his head to say a 
word to the man behind him, when the second mate come 
around the house and kicked him pretty hard in the legs. 
'What are yer kickin' me for, sir? I didn't do nothin'.' 
'You lie,' said Mr. Rarx. 'What are you sayin' to that 

329 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

man? Givin' me back talk, too.' Well, sir, with that 
he jumped on him when he was stoopin' over, and I 
thought his ribs 'ud go afore he got through with him. 
Now, look ; a bosun's supposed to be on the mate's side. 
But I say there's no bit o' use in a-smashin' a man all up 
that didn't deserve it, as I've seen dozens o' times in 
American ships. I must say there's some tough cases sails 
in Yankee ships, but whose fault is that? It's the fault o' 
the cap' ins and mates themselves. What man with a little 
bit o' self-respec' s goin' to allow himself to be knocked 
around the decks when he can sail in other ships, even if he 
is only a foremast hand ? A dog won' t stand that, but he 
can run away from the man what beats him ; but the sailor 
can't. But the worst of the whole thing is that American 
mates don' t make any difference atween a blackguard and a 
man what's doin' his best. Some men's got to be thumped, 
it's the only way to handle 'em ; but what's the good o' hittin' 
a man with a block like the second mate did to Karl and 
then hazin' him for the rest o' the passage. It's mighty 
little you know what's been goin' on here up forrad ; 
they' ve kep' it quiet, for I guess the old man told the mates 
not to let out afore you and the lady. But there was a 
hot time under the forecastle-head some days off the Horn. 
I was goin' out in the ' S. G. Alley' a couple o' year ago 
to Japan. ' Black Taylor' was mate of her, the toughest 
man in the toughest ship under the flag. We were makin' 
sail off the Hook and there was a man surgin' up on a 
rope at a capstan ; the rope was wet and wouldn't render 
easy, but paid out in short jerks, which, of course, the sailor 
couldn't help. Taylor spotted him, and sung out that if he 
did it again he'd come over and fix him. In a minute or 
so the rope slipped an inch again, and with that Taylor 
runs over to him and kicks him into the water-ways, and 
was goin' to lep on his stummick when the man all at once 

330 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

jumped up, whipped out a knife and drew it up the mate's 
vest. His insides fell out on the deck and he died in a 
little while. Of course the ship couldn't go to sea without 
a mate, so we turned back to New York. The sailor was 
jugged, and what d'ye think he got? Six months ! He 
pleaded self-defence and Taylor's black record decided 
the jury. I'll bet this Frenchman of ours '11 get nothin' at 
all if only one man '11 stand by him and tell what he's seen 
Mr. Rarx do. I've sailed in a good many American ships, 
and in every one of them some one was cut up afore we 
got in. I'm thinkin' o' the Snug Harbor or you'd never 
see me in another one," Latitude, o° 7' north ; longitude, 
115" 47' west. 

August 23 

We went along pretty slowly last night, for only the 
faintest of breezes came whispering over the Pacific ; and it 
was so still that we could plainly hear the sighing of por- 
poises as they rolled languidly through the water alongside, 
a brilliant flash of phosphoric light showing where each 
disappeared. At daylight this morning, though, a de- 
lightful breeze came singing out of the east-southeast, and 
by nine o' clock we were making seven knots, doing twenty- 
nine miles in the forenoon watch, — no mean speed for the 
equatorial ocean. It seems that the light spell was only a 
lull in the Trades, for there are plenty of indications of 
wind round about. 

At 4.30 yesterday, after pumping, I had yet another 
conversation with the doughty Scot. " Have ye taken 
notice of the way the mate's slacked up on the men?" he 
asked; "that's a bad sign, now. Here's this man cut; 
before ye' 11 remember how he used to shout and charge 
around the decks. What do ye hear from him now ? 
Nothin' at all. I haven' t heard him raise his voice to one 

331 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

o' the men since Wednesday night. Why ? ' Cause he' s 
scared. He's in a funk ; and I have the task o' keepin' 
the ship in order forrad. One o' them, Tim, was goin' to 
get ugly this forenoon ; but I turned on him sharp and 
says, ' See here, now, drop that ; you've laid one man out, 

haven't you? You have ; but I'm d if you're goin' 

to lay me out,' says I, and that settled it for the time. 
Who' ve I got to depend on if they do break out ? The 
mate's no good, and t'other bosun's only a child. When 
Mr. Rarx gets up again you'll see some fireworks. Did 
ye ever hear any thin' about Cap'n Slocum in the ' D. G. 
Tillie' ? He's another hard nut. I was comin' around in 
her once from Baltimore, bound to ' Frisco with a load o' 
coal. One o' the men forgot to say ' sir' to the second 
mate one day in a hard squall ; so Slocum clapped the 
irons on him, and then near beat the life out of him with a 
fid. This little bit o' fun, though, I heard cost him near 
two thousand dollars. I'll tell ye the ships you'd ought to 
sail in if ye make another voyage, — one of the Loch Line ; 
they're grand ships, and run like men-o'-war ; I've been 
in them, and they're the best that sails the seas." 

They are, doubtless, the best run sailing ships in the 
world, and were built not alone to carry agricultural imple- 
ments and wool in the London-Melbourne trade, but to 
take out passengers as well. There are fifteen of them, 
and all named after Scottish lochs, and they vary in size 
from twelve hundred to two thousand tons. If all ships 
were as fast as the " Loch Torridon," tramp steamers would 
be at a discount. This vessel goes wherever she can find 
a charter, and has made a number of wonderful records. 
She holds the best record for a deep-loaded ship from 
Newcastle, Australia, to San Francisco, — forty-six days. 
In 1 89 1 she made the passage from Sydney to London, 
wool-laden, in eighty days, beating a fleet of seventy-eight 

332 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

vessels, similarly loaded and bound to the United Kingdom, 
It was on this voyage that Captain Pattman, who has com- 
manded the ship for sixteen years, made a record that is 
simply marvellous, by sailing from the Diego Ramirez to 
the Lizard in forty-one days ! In 1892 the " Loch Tor- 
ridon," in ballast, went out to Melbourne from London in 
sixty-nine days, and the consecutive runs for nine days 
were, in knots, 302, 290, 288, 272, 285, 282, 270, 327, 
and 341 ; and from Saturday noon to Saturday noon the 
ship made 21 19 knots, an average of 303 knots per day, or 
about thirteen miles per hour. Another fast passage of this 
gallant ship was from Newcastle, Australia, to Valparaiso 
in thirty days. It is easy to imagine the intense pride that 
a ship-master must feel in such a vessel. Her picture ap- 
pears on the opposite page. It is a pity that her royals are 
clewed up. 

Last evening Louis's coat and a change of clothes were 
brought aft by Charlie, one of the jolly, good-tempered fel- 
lows. " Lemme see them duds," growled the mate, stand- 
ing by the wheel-house, who then went carefully through 
the pockets for concealed weapons, but found only a lump 
of tobacco, which some one had slipped into the pocket, as 
Louis is a great masticator of the weed. The mate subse- 
quently transferred the tobacco to his own pocket, where- 
upon Charlie actually expostulated with him, at which Mr. 
Goggins said never a word ! The second mate is now 
doing quite well, and ate his first solid food to-day, a bit 
of dry toast, but his rations still consist mostly of arrow- 
root gruel. The captain told us to-day that last Friday he 
didn't think that Mr. Rarx would live through that day, 
but a robust constitution has apparently pulled him past 
the crisis. The more we ponder on the stabbing affair the 
more remarkable it seems that the second mate should 
have started the row. If the truth were known, both 

333 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Rarx and Louis were perhaps getting a little rusty from 
disuse and tried to brighten matters up a little ; but Rarx 
'11 never take another Dago by the throat again (at sea 
Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Italians are Dagos ; Scandina- 
vians, Hollanders, and Germans are Dutchmen). Louis 
will have a very strong case against the second mate if he 
can get Karl and some of the others to testify as to their 
treatment at the hands of Mr. Rarx ; and self-defence is an 
excellent plea when a man takes another by the throat, 
especially if the said man has been in the habit of utilizing 
belaying-pins for other purposes than those for which they 
were intended. Latitude, i° 45' north; longitude, 117° 
15' west. 

August 24 

Two hundred and two miles ! How's that for one day's 
run in the southeast Trades two hundred and fifty miles 
north of the equator? Indeed, this is the best that we 
have done for a fortnight, and it has put all hands in a 
happy mood. A powerful current setting west-northwest, 
two and one-half knots an hour, has been responsible for 
about sixty miles of the distance, but the wind is strong at 
south-southeast and should give us another good run to- 
morrow. Except the Gulf Stream, I do not know of a 
current in the open sea as strong as this one, which, if in a 
harbor, would at times, half bury a small can-buoy. The 
heat, though, is very severe now, the humidity and oppres- 
siveness being extreme. 

The second mate was carried out of his room this fore- 
noon and laid in a reclining chair on the main-deck. His 
respiration is improving, though it is still labored, and he 
says that he really feels but little better. The probability 
of his being able to resume his duties before we reach port 
is very remote, which is fortunate for the men, for if Mr. 

334 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Rarx should sufficiently recover to stand his watches, there 
would be a terrific thumping of sailors. 

The mate went below to put a fresh pair of irons on 
Louis, and in doing so handled him very roughly (a cour- 
ageous performance), so that the Frenchman sobbed two 
or three times. "Ha," quoth Goggins, "blubberin', eh? 
That's just like you Dagos. You're nothin' but a lot of 
old women with no more sand than a — a — a — jelly-fish, you 
ain' t. ' ' People in glass houses occurred to me then, and I 
thought how Louis could, any day, pick up this miserable 
creature when he went down with his food, and shake the life 
out of him with just one of those mighty arms of his. The 
Frenchman is unlucky in having such wrists, for there is not 
a pair of irons in the ship nearly large enough, and each 
wrist is encircled by a ringlet of raw skin where the hand- 
cuffs have gripped and chafed it as though it had been 
seared with a hot bracelet. I cannot help feeling sorry for 
him, in spite of his deed ; for it is improbable that a man 
whose general character is so good and whose face is so 
frank and honest is a villain at heart. Like the rest of 
his nation, he is very quick-tempered, and upon the second 
mate's catching him by the throat his hand instantly flew 
to his weapon, the common sailor's sheath-knife. On the 
other hand, both Tim and Coleman look like typical hard 
cases, with restless eyes and evil, discontented, sinister 
faces. Why is it that such men are seldom maltreated at 
sea? It is only such inoffensive creatures as Karl and 
Briin who are kicked about a ship's deck like curs in an 
alley-way. Such men as I have mentioned first are thor- 
oughly wide-awake, too, and know just how far to go in 
irritating captains and mates without laying themselves 
open to punishment ; and when mates cannot detect them, 
they (the mates) " take it out" on others. 

The most intelligent man forward is a New Yorker, Dick 

335 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Broadhead, and, as he has been very wilHng to talk, we 
have had some interesting conversations. He is going 
out to ship in one of the Pacific mail steamers as quar- 
termaster, which accounts for so respectable a young man's 
signing in an American vessel. What a splendid lot of 
young, native Americans we would have in our merchant 
marine if boys at sea in our deep-water ships were treated 
as they are in the vessels of other nations ! The real Amer- 
ican sailor, as he has proved in our naval achievements, has 
no superior, and if even the mildest inducements were offered 
to young men of decent antecedents to sail in our ships, we 
would soon have a merchant service that would be the envy 
of the rest of the world. Look at the training-ship ' ' St. 
Mary's," which is supposed to supply young men to officer 
our steamers and sailing ships. I have yet to meet with a 
single graduate of this excellent institution on a sailing ves- 
sel, for they absolutely refuse to sign in them even as second 
mate, saying that until blood and belaying-pins cease 
to fly in our long-voyage ships, they would leave them 
severely alone. The existing condition of things actually 
prevents our boys and young men from joining the mer- 
chant service. Why have we not a PlimsoU to strip our 
ships of the unprincipled wretches who command and 
ofificer them ? Although not a sailor, this excellent man 
spent most of his life and ten thousand pounds in ameli- 
orating the condition of English seamen. If our sailors 
were treated as they are in the foreign services, we should 
have gentlemen's sons as captains and mates, as they have 
in Great Britain and Germany, and not the miserable ex- 
amples of humanity that are to be found on the quarter- 
decks of the majority of our deep-water-men. The second 
mate of a ship once said to me, speaking of the captain of 
one of our crack San Francisco wind-jammers, "What! 

Cap'n B ? Why, he don't know who his father and 

^3^ 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

mother were." If this is the captain, what can you 
expect ? 

But I have drifted away from Broadhead. This is the 
second ship under the stars and stripes that he ever served 
in, having been shanghaied on board the ' ' Virago' ' once 
two or three years before in a Chinese port. It was this 
ship's maiden voyage, and she came home around South 
America from Hong-Kong, instead of around Africa. 
Concerning Captain Jones, Broadhead remarked, "I've 
seen dummies in command of ships, but he beats the deck. 
The first bad squall we had off the Horn, I was steering, 
and he was so scared he just held on to the rail and yelled, 
and I heard the mate say to him, ' Why don't you get the 
t'-ga'nt-s'ls of? her?' She went down to the sheer-poles in 
that squall, and they do say he hasn't had anything above 
the topsails on her since. I'll give you a tip : the 'Vi- 
rago's' got three masts too many for Cap'n Jones." 
Latitude, 4° 24' north ; longitude, 119° 20' west. 

August 25 

So joyous a breeze has wafted us along for twenty-four 
hours that at noon to-day we were two hundred and two 
miles from where we were at the same time yesterday. We 
have no current now, and our run was due solely to good, 
honest winds from south-southeast. At about noon to-day, 
though, the breeze shifted to south-southwest, and now 
(4 P.M.) it is at southwest and not strong. It is probable 
that we have lost the Trades, after holding them for thirty- 
five degrees of latitude, — a remarkable piece of luck. It 
was grand sailing then ; the very finest that we ever had. 
But hence to 15° north will no doubt be a trying week. 
It was a matter of some surprise to us when we first learned 
that the light southwesterly wind that blows between the 
Trades in the Atlantic and Pacific is called a monsoon. It 
32 337 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

is generally supposed that the term monsoon, which is from 
the Arabian mawsun, signifying season, is applied to certain 
winds on the southeast coast of Asia only. 

Gracious, how hot it is here now ! What a difference in 
a few hours ! At noon, with the sky heavily overcast and on 
the coolest part of the deck, the thermometer stood at 84°. 
In equatorial regions it is only when far removed from salt- 
water that the mercury rises to such altitudes as 130° ; 
this fearful temperature is experienced in many localities, 
such as Northern India, Mojave Desert, in Southern Cali- 
fornia, and in parts of Australia. In such places as Para, 
Singapore, and Madras, though close to the equator, the 
temperature seldom rises more than two or three degrees 
above 90°. Anything higher than 80° in such places, as 
well as at sea, would be considered almost unbearable by 
most people. 

While my wife and I were reading on the deck-house 
this morning we observed the wee cook in transports of 
delight, the cause of which became apparent when he held 
up a fine bonito. We went down to look at it, and then 
perceived two men on the jib-boom end fishing for them, 
so we climbed up on the top-gallant forecastle-head to watch 
the sport. It was delightful up there, cool and breezy from 
the gush that whirled out of the curve of the foresail. We 
braced ourselves against the knight-heads and, looking 
down over the lofty, flaring bows, we could see dozens of 
bonitos darting swiftly about the cut-water as we swept 
grandly on through the blue, transparent sea. Far out on 
the tapering end of the spar were Charley and Olsen ; the 
former with the line in his hand, the hook being concealed 
by that singular and universal deep-sea bait, a bit of white 
cotton cloth. Charley kept the hook just touching the 
surface, except when he jerked it sharply upward, in imita- 
tion of the flight of the flying-fish, which form the principal 

338 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

food of the voracious bonito. It would be all but impos- 
sible to conceive a more beautiful scene than that which 
fascinated us for half an hour. The fish themselves were 
of the most exquisite colors, some brilliant blue, some 
magenta, others of a rich purple ; and as they flashed 
through the water with incredible speed, twisting and 
twirling about in pursuit of their prey, with now and then 
a gleam of silvery white from their under parts, they 
looked not unlike segments of a vivid rainbow. Presently 
one would shoot clear out of the water for the bait, straight 
and swift as a dart, and seize it in his toothless but greedy 
jaws. A great churning and splashing would follow, and 
then Charlie, almost hysterical with excitement, would haul 
up the lithe, handsome creature, quivering and vibrating as 
though galvanized. No sooner would he be hooked than 
perhaps a hundred flying-fish would break through the 
surface and sail gleaming away for a few rods, only to fall 
into the rapacious mouths of their enemies. The spectacle 
was one long to be cherished : the whizzing flight of the 
glittering little fish, the lustrous-hued bonitos, the tranquil 
surface of the ocean, broken here and there with foaming 
ripples, and the lofty tiers of canvas rearing themselves 
higher and higher toward the clouds. 

Captain Scruggs continues his quiet, almost agreeable 
manner, answers pleasantly, and has little to say at meals. 
It is aggravating to think that the skipper knew quite well 
how he ought to have behaved during the voyage, and 
that he simply didn't care " whether school kept or not." 
Now and then the silence is broken during dinner by a 
shattering crash of the old man's ponderous foot upon the 
oil-cloth floor, while he simultaneously yells, ' ' Get out o' 
here, you homely thing !" This is an exhortation to the 
gaunt, pop-eyed cat, which sometimes slinks into the cabin 
at meals. It seems impossible to fatten this singular 

339 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

animal, and it skulks and stalks about the decks as lank 
and ribbed as a Calcutta jackal, with its huge saffron eyes 
fixed motionlessly upon you in so startling a fashion that 
it looks like an incarnation of one of Cruikshank's draw- 
ings. Its notions of sport are equally strange ; Tommie, 
the sleek Maltese, has been trying to teach it how to play, 
but when Tom rushes sportively at it, the other executes a 
series of prodigious, vertical leaps, with its legs flat out at 
right angles, and in another moment vanishes with an eld- 
rich cry. 

Mr. Rarx is about the same ; two of the men supported 
him to-day while he tried to hobble about the deck ; but 
he cannot for an instant even stand alone. Latitude, 6° 56' 
north; longitude, 121° 15' west. 

August 26 

We are now certain that we have lost the Trades. The 
wind has been steady at southwest for twenty-four hours, 
and, though not a strong breeze, we made more than two 
degrees of latitude, which is not bad going for this region, 
and three days of it would take us into the northeast winds. 
It is intensely hot and moist, and heavy showers pelt us 
every half-hour ; but it is a fine chance for cleaning ship, 
and all hands are at work scrubbing off the old paint from 
the bulwarks and deck-houses preparatory to the new coat. 

How I wish we could get a photograph in colors of that 
villain, Tim Powers ! I never supposed that one of the 
human species could so nearly in appearance approach the 
simian race. His head and jaws are covered with a thick 
growth of bright-red hair, which continues down his throat 
till it meets a shaggy breast. The body, powerfully made, 
is curved forward like an ape's, and long, thick arms, hair- 
covered to the knuckles, swing loosely well below the 
middle ; and he waddles in his gait like a monkey endeav- 

340 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

oring to walk upright. The best possible description of 
this animal is to say that he is ever so much more like a 
chimpanzee than a chimpanzee is. Besides all this, he is 
so dirty that the rest of the men follow him with their eyes 
as he moves about the deck. 

Those who are not especially interested in the well-being 
of our sailors may find the following dissertation somewhat 
tiresome ; but the facts about to be set forth ought to be 
known to the public, as they certainly are not, so that I 
will not begin these remarks with an apology for their 
length. 

In every port of any size in the United States there are 
a number of men whose business it is to maintain boarding- 
houses for sailors, — that is, they are known to the outside 
world as boarding-house-keepers, but in reality they form 
one of the most extensive aggregations of criminals, thieves, 
and persecutors to be met with in any country of the world 
that boasts a high civilization. Their technical name is 
crimps. The Encyclopaedic Dictionary defines a crimp as 
' ' one who keeps a low lodging-house, into which sailors 
and others are decoyed and then robbed' ' ; but it would be 
impossible to present properly, in so small a space, the 
different phases and extensions of a system which for 
generations has eluded and defied investigation and has 
baffled the attempts of well-meaning but incapable legisla- 
tors. New York is the hot-bed of crimps, for there are 
more than fifty boarding-houses in the city near the water- 
front. Take the case of a vessel just in from a long voyage. 
No sooner does the anchor touch bottom than her decks 
are suddenly and mysteriously filled with strange men, who 
pay no attention to the captain or mates, but go at once 
into the forecastle among the sailors. They are the run- 
ners for the crimps, — men whose business it is to supply 
the sailors with grog v/hich they have brought on board for 

341 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

the purpose, and then decoy and persuade them to their re- 
spective establishments. Every sailor at the end of a voy- 
age has but half of his wages coming to him (more of this 
by and by), say about forty dollars. The crimp at once 
takes a week's board in advance and then, having drenched 
the unfortunate with the vilest of rum, it is a matter of but two 
or three days until the crimp has wheedled him out of the 
rest of his hard-earned gains, and then he gets in his finest 
work by opening an account with the sailor for lodging, 
meals, drinks, etc. He then at once becomes the slave of the 
crimp and must do his bidding ; not only can the latter 
prevent him from securing employment (in this free 
country!), but can actually prevent a ship-master from 
getting a crew, unless he signifies his willingness to deal 
with him ; and as I have said, so powerful (politically) is 
the crimping organization in New York that it successfully 
defies all effort at checking it and controls absolutely the 
shipping of sailors in New York. When a captain wishes 
to engage a crew, not finding one at the shipping commis- 
sioners, where they are supposed to be, he is compelled to 
apply to a crimp, and if sailors are scarce at the time, he 
will charge the captain so much per head ! If the sailors 
are plentiful, though, he will not charge the captain any- 
thing for supplying him with a crew ; in fact, he will go to 
the extremity of paying the latter a bonus for the privilege 
of shipping his men, in order to prevent some other crimp 
from securing his business, taking the precaution of charg- 
ing the sailors a fee suiificiently large to make up the de- 
ficiency. This fee is known among sailors as ' ' blood- 
money," and it varies from one to twenty dollars per capita; 
in our own case, the amount that each foremast hand had to 
pay for being allowed to sail in this ship was five dollars ; 
and though their wages are so small (about eighteen dollars 
a month) it would be useless for them to object to the blood- 

342 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

money ; alternative, starvation in the streets. This prac- 
tice of paying ship owners and masters for the privilege of 
supplying them with sailors has grown so common that it 
is regarded by many owners and captains as a legitimate 
source of income ; so much so, that the majority refuse to 
sign other than a crimp's crew. The shipping commis- 
sioner, a federal officer, is supposed to look after the 
gathering together of a ship's company ; the men, it is true, 
sign the articles in his presence, but that is the sum total 
of his connection with the shipment of sailors. Why doesn' t 
the commissioner stop the crimping ? He is well aware, of 
course, that it goes on ; but he does not seek to prevent it 
because he is instructed not to interfere with the accredited 
^^ agents'' of the owners, and it must not be forgotten that 
under the fee system in vogue at present the commissioners 
are, to a great extent, dependent upon the good-will of the 
owners for their income. Any attempt of the commissioner 
to interfere with the ' ' agents' ' of the latter would evoke a 
strong protest from them, and would, perhaps, end in the 
suppression of the office of commissioner ; therefore the 
majority of the owners insist that their ' ' agents' ' shall be 
respected. 

In many instances the commissioners have been utterly 
unfit for the office they have held, for they are supposed to 
look after the welfare of seamen, besides their shipment. 
It is even said that some have been appointed from the 
forces of the crimps themselves. Others have been com- 
mon ward politicians (those who know New York will 
appreciate this), and even a metal-worker has in the past 
held the office at New York ; while the most influential 
candidate for the position now at one of our greatest ports 
is a sign-painter ! It will be appreciated at once how much 
men of this sort know of the grievances of sailors whom 
they are supposed to protect. 

343 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

The allotment system which obtains now when sailors are 
about to go to sea is a most iniquitous arrangement. The 
law says that ' ' a sailor may stipulate in his shipping agree- 
ment for the allotment of any portion of his wages which 
he may earn to his wife, mother, or other relative, or to an 
original creditor in liquidation of any just debt for board or 
clothing which he may have contracted prior to an engage- 
ment. ' ' This law was evidently framed to the advantage 
of the sailor, but in its ambiguity lies its detriment to 
seamen. Of course, the ' ' original creditor' ' is the crimp 
(which was obviously not what the law intended), who has 
turned the words ' ' may stipulate' ' into ' ' must stipulate. ' ' 
When a ship-master makes known to a crimp that he wants 
a crew, the crimp rounds up the required number of men, 
marches them to the shipping commissioner's, where they 
sign the articles and are paid usually two months' advance 
wages (which is not lawful until it is turned into an " allot- 
ment"). This money, forty dollars in round numbers, is 
given to the crimp ( ' ' the original creditor' ' ) , who then 
extracts from the sum an amount three or four times in 
excess of what the man is really indebted to him, arranges 
for the blood-money, and hands the rest (if any money 
remains) to the victim. Frequently all of his advance is 
necessary to liquidate this "just debt," and the man goes 
to sea without a cent. On the voyage he gets in debt to 
the ship for the slop-chest account, clothing, oil-skins, 
boots, tobacco, etc., and at the end of the voyage, if it 
lasts four months, generally not more than a month's wages 
are due him. This is secured by the crimp at the destina- 
tion, and the old story of robbery and persecution is re- 
peated. No foreign nation that I know of, at least none of 
the highest rank, allows crimping. The government has 
charge of the procuring of crews, and any infringement or 
interference by an outsider is a criminal offence, and, more 

344 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

than that, it is always punished as such. The United 
States government has never attempted to stamp out the 
crimps, and they, in turn, have never experienced any 
difficulty in prosecuting their lawless and miserable busi- 
ness. 

Every time that a sailor signs articles any one or all of 
the following laws are violated, which the commissioner 
placidly disregards, and of which other government officials 
seem to be in complete ignorance : 

ist. The payment of advance prohibited under penalty, 
fine, and imprisonment. 23 St. at L. , page 55, Section 10, 
Dingley act, June 26, 1884 ; pages 66, 67 of U. S. Navi- 
gation Laws, also subdivision. Section 4522, U. S. R. S. 

2d. Misuse of allotment notes. See 24 St. at L. , page 
80, Section 3, act June 19, 1886, and page 67, U. S. 
Navigation Laws. 

3d. Payment of blood-money strictly forbidden. Section 
4609, U. S. R. S. 

4th. Withholding wages four or five days to bring sea- 
men into the power of crimps. Section 4529, U. S. R. S. 

5th. Withholding seamen's baggage to prevent them 
from seeking employment on their own account. Prohibi- 
tion and penalty. Section 4536, U. S. R. S., as amended 
February 18, 1895 ; page 68, U. S. Navigation Laws. 

6th. Soliciting lodgers (employment of runners) on in- 
ward-bound ships. Section 4607, U. S. R. S ; page 71, 
U. S. Navigation Laws. 

All these violations tend directly to the demoralization 
and degradation of sailors, and ought to be immediately 
abolished. 

Why our shipping laws should be so frequently broken, 
and with the utmost impunity, is, I think, partly due to 
their ambiguous construction, for many of them were pre- 
pared by either ship-owners or crimps with an abundance 

345 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

of political influence, and also partly to our lax method of 
carrying out the laws that we have framed ; and they are 
disregarded because it would not be to the advantage of 
any one save the sailor, for whom they were supposed to 
have been enacted, to enforce them. The grievances of 
seamen are not popular subjects with the authorities, be- 
cause of the peculiar obstacles generally met with in efforts 
to prove them ; while the amount of damages awarded to 
sailors, except in unusual cases, do not offer sufficient in- 
ducements to the sort of maritime lawyers who would be 
likely to, bring the cases to a successful issue. 

As that able writer on the subject and champion of 
sailors, Mr. James H. Williams, says, ' ' The complaining 
seaman has usually arrayed against him the combined 
powers of the wealthy ship-owners ; the cunning, unscrupu- 
lous, and designing crimp ; the sagacity and ability of the 
most experienced lawyers ; and sometimes the traditional 
prejudice of the judicial mind is often turned against him. 
With this combination to overcome on the merits of his 
case alone, the allegations of the sailor must be well sus- 
tained indeed to enable him to win." As for the cases of 
sailors suing for damages for maltreatment at sea, the diffi- 
culties encountered by them when seeking justice lie in the 
facilities afforded the offender — that is, the master or mate 
— to escape ; the obstacles that the owners put in the way 
of his apprehension ; and the disposal of the witnesses 
— "shanghaiing" — either by bribery or iyitimidaiion by the 
crimps. 

Mr. Williams has accurately and truthfully summed up 
the seaman's condition in the United States as follows : 
' ' The sailor is degraded to be more effectually robbed ; he 
is cheated for want of official protection ; he is not pro- 
tected because of his own utter helplessness, and because 
we have no recognized shipping system such as exists in 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Great Britain, for instance. In this country the sailor is 
often despised because of his nationality ; in European 
countries he is usually honored for the same reason. When 
this nation rises to a realizing sense of its own responsibility 
and manifest duty to the sailor, and provides proper laws 
for his protection and adequate means for their enforcement, 
both our merchant marine and navy will become American- 
ized, seamanship will become an honorable calling, and 
American boys will go to sea." 

Over against this wretched treatment allowed to exist by 
the government of the United States, for its commissioners 
make no attempt to prevent it, stands forth the protection 
accorded the sailors of Great Britain and Germany. Sea- 
men are well taken care of in the latter country ; but in 
Great Britain there exists a system of sailor protection 
ashore, so perfect as to leave little or nothing to be desired ; 
and the perfection of its detail has led me to show the work- 
ings of this scheme in the next few pages, a scheme that is 
facile princeps, and that ought to be a model for the rest of 
the world. The shipment of seamen in Great Britain is 
conducted under the superintendence of the Board of 
Trade ; this is a separate department of the government, 
and upon it devolves the supervision and control of the 
entire merchant marine, — i.e., commerce and navigation. 
The president of the Board of Trade is a cabinet minister, 
and of course occupies a seat in Parliament ; and the duties 
of the Board are defined and guided by acts of Parliament. 
Among other specific functions, the Board of Trade must 
provide for the shipment, care, and protection of seamen, 
and must frame and enforce (that's the great point) proper 
laws for the suppression of crimping and similar abomina- 
tions. Inasmuch as the Board was organized solely with 
reference to the interests of sailors and commerce, its 
officers have been, in nearly every case, judiciously chosen 

347 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

for their peculiar fitness and natural aptitude for the work 
rather than for any political views they may have held, or 
because of any influence exercised in favor of their appoint- 
ment. As a result of this- common-sense arrangement a 
most efficient and reliable body of officials has been se- 
cured, and for this reason the Board of Trade, from being 
considered at first a very troublesome innovation by mari- 
time people, has succeeded in forming relations so close as 
to be almost indispensable with ship-owners and merchants 
throughout Great Britain ; and what is even more remark- 
able, and certainly just as important, it has secured the 
confidence, improved the character, and protected the 
rights, interests, and persons of seamen to an extent which 
np other institution in any country has ever attained. 

In all ports of Great Britain subdivisions of the Board of 
Trade, called Local Marine Boards, are established, each 
having authority over local maritime affairs. Seamen are 
entitled to direct representation on these local Boards, which 
are now maintained by the home government at various 
foreign seaports between Hamburg and Brest. 

In Great Britain the shipping and discharging of seamen 
is conducted and superintended by government officers, 
and no person other than duly appointed officials of the 
Board of Trade are permitted to enter the shipping office 
under any pretext whatever while business is being trans- 
acted between master and crew U7ider severe penalty. 
Crimps and all manner of ' ' beach pirates' ' are particularly 
objectionable, and if found on the premises occupied by an 
official shipping bureau, are incarcerated without the slight- 
est ceremony. Every shipment of seamen must take place 
at a government office except in extraordinary cases pro- 
vided for in the law. When crews are wanted, notices to 
that effect are posted at the shipping office, on the vessels 
requiring them, and in other places where sailors will be 

348 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

likely to see them. Men desiring employment then proceed 
to the shipping office, present their discharges to the offi- 
cial, who in turn hands them to the captain. In this way 
crews are selected, and it will be perceived what an excel- 
lent body of men a captain can thus gather together. A 
seaman without his discharges generally finds great diffi- 
culty in obtaining a berth in England unless he can offer 
proof as to his previous service and character. These dis- 
charges are usually enclosed in a sort of wallet furnished by 
the government for a small sum, and are always accepted 
as evidence of the men's rating, ability, and conduct. 
They are retained by the master until the end of the 
voyage, when they are returned to the owners with a new 
one added. 

Aside from the mere formal engagement and official pro- 
tection from ' ' water-front parasites, ' ' the Board of Trade 
is of immense importance and value to British sailors in a 
variety of ways altogether too numerous for enumeration 
here. Suffice it to say, then, that the many shining 
features of this splendid institution have proved of incalcu- 
lable benefit to English sailors and their families, while the 
practical results obtained by means of its beneficent in- 
fluence have contributed in no small degree to the present 
maritime greatness and power of the British nation. 

Compare this method with the American fashion of 
throwing a dozen or more poor, wretched, half-starved, 
drunken creatures on board a ship, who have been robbed 
of their small pittance, gained often when looking into 
death's jaws without so much as a flinch ; and frequently 
stripped of every garment save the underclothes which 
alone cover them, the hapless victims of the laxity and the 
passive indifference of the United States government, com- 
mence the voyage of four or six months in a ship com- 
manded in many, many instances by men little short of 

349 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

devils, and officered by men worse than beasts, conscious 
that for themselves it is merely a case of ' ' out of the pan 
into the fire." Latitude, 8° 53' north ; longitude, 122° west. 

August 27 

Last night was one of terrific heat. Imagine a tempera- 
ture of 87° at one in the morning, with an atmosphere so 
oppressive with humidity that instead of sustaining a 
weight of fifteen pounds per square inch the body seems to 
be supporting at least thirty. It was hotter than any night 
that I ever remember afloat or ashore. There was a pecu- 
liar, smothering quality in the atmosphere, which was so 
heavy and moist that it seemed as though you ought to be 
able to seize a handful and squeeze the water out of it. The 
very essence of humidity seemed to be instilled into the air, 
and my wife, who readily withstood the heat in the Bay of 
Bengal at the close of the wet season, nearly fainted in the 
middle watch. It must not be supposed that because the 
air is pure that people do not suffer in hot weather at sea ; 
that is an idea held only by those who have never crossed 
the equator. If the hygrometer would drop even to eighty- 
five or ninety the temperature could be conveniently borne ; 
but this almost continual saturation is exceedingly try- 
ing. Think of the sufferings of passengers in the Red Sea, 
when steamers often have to alter their course and proceed 
against the wind to prevent people from dying of heat apo- 
plexy ! 

The captain has once more donned his white drill suits, 
the jackets of which button closely up under the throat, like 
soldiers' tunics in the tropics. By this arrangement it is 
not necessary to wear an ordinary shirt underneath ; and 
at first glance the skipper looks to be most suitably and 
airily attired, and you envy him the possession of his gos- 
samer tunics, until at meals, when there is an expansion of 

350 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

his corporeal sphericity which opens the spaces between 
the tunic buttons. And then, oh, horrors ! the sight is 
blasted by the lurid glare of a red flannel undershirt ! Red 
flannel on the equator ! It is enough to throttle you, and 
the temperature instantly rises several degrees. No man 
ought to be allowed to so afflict his fellow-creatures. 

Last night when I went on deck at 9.30 the skipper was 
on the lee side, looking at the heavens. On seeing me he 
said, "Well, there's our old friend, the pole star; we 
haven' t seen him for many a day. ' ' Now, I ought to have 
known better than to attempt any joke, but it seemed 
likely that he would surely know this ancient pleasantry of 
mariners, so I answered, — 

' ' Yes ; as the saying is, the pole star is the first land 
you make coming up from Cape Horn." 

This threw him into a grave meditation, at the end of 
which he ominously observed, "I don't see what you 
mean." I had by this time forgotten all about the star, 
and had to ask him in turn what he meant. 

' ' Why, how do you mean that the pole star is the first 
land you make ?' ' he demanded, bristling ; ' ' you often see 
Juan Fernandez." 

"Oh, well," I answered, desiring propitiation, "sailors 
used to say that in the old days, meaning that it reminded 
them that they were once more in northern latitudes." 

"Well, /never heard it," he returned ; "and, anyhow, 
we don't know whether hit's land or water." Here I fled, 
unable to withstand the strain any longer. 

At dinner to-day he unexpectedly relapsed into his usual 
morose, contrary humor, and came strutting and stamping 
into the dining-room, glaring at every object, till his eye lit 
on a plate of rather stale hard bread on the table ; then he 
grabbed some, fiercely bit an enormous piece out of it, threw 
the rest back into the platter, dropped into his seat with a 

351 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

crash that shook the tumblers, and shouted at the quaking 
steward, ' ' Ain' t I told yer not to put nothin' on the table 
but what's fit for a white man to eat?" Deep silence fol- 
lowed as he dashed the soup around in the tureen with the 
ladle and fell upon his dinner ; and my wife, without think- 
ing, observed, " Well, this is the hottest we have had yet." 
' ' No, ' ' said Captain Scruggs, ' ' it ain' t, hit' s nice and cool. ' ' 
Angry at this flat contradiction, I told him that the ther- 
mometer, unlike many people, always told the truth, and 
that it was 88° on deck. " In the sun," he replied, which 
he knew wasn't so ; while that devilish Goggins smiled 
blandly at us, as if to say, " You can't catch him'' ; but I 
stood by for developments. Presently the old man began 
to shift about in his seat ; then he made the curious re- 
mark that it was too warm for rain ; in ten minutes more 
the perspiration began to stream from his face, and in an- 
other five minutes he got up and left the cabin, almost 
prostrated with the heat on this cool and pleasant day ; 
though as he departed he attributed it to " them beans 
bein' too heavy eatin' . ' ' The mate followed him, with a 
face like a worn-out wet carriage sponge. 

We have crossed the sun and he is at last south of us 
and casts shadows in the opposite direction from yesterday. 
We haven't had the racks on the table for two days, which 
means a phenomenally smooth sea ; the ocean often ap- 
pears quiet enough to the eye, but there is nearly always a 
swell present that would play havoc with glasses and bot- 
tles. This is the first time that we haven't used the fiddles 
since leaving New York. Latitude, io° 44' north ; longi- 
tude, 122° 35' west. 

August 28 

Another very hot day and night, but not comparable with 
yesterday, when a draught of air out of the sails was more 

352 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

like a blast from Tophet than a breath from this great ocean. 
It was possible to get considerable sleep last night, and on 
the whole we did very well ; for even if we made only 
seventy-five miles, it was in the right direction. During 
the whole of the first watch last night there wasn't even a 
suspicion of wind and the silence that reigned was won- 
derfully impressive, so that we were deeply awed by the 
solemnity of the scene. All about the zenith was a large 
area of perfectly clear sky thickly dusted with stars that 
shone with a calm splendor not to be seen except near the 
equator. 

" By night those soft, lascivious stars 
Leer from those velvet skies," 

saith Kipling. 

About 45° from the zenith a mist commenced, thicken- 
ing gradually into clouds dense and black, their lofty cones 
and dark abysses brought forth with startling clearness 
by great ceaseless surges of heat-lightning that enveloped 
the horizon like undulating, violet flames. On board no 
sound broke the stillness, which was that of the Arctic ice- 
fields, for minutes at a time, except now and then the creak 
of a yard that broke harshly on the ear, or the pleasant 
sound of a light swell at long intervals that chuckled to 
itself under the counter ; and we floated motionless upon 
the deep, wrapped in an absolute and breathless calm. 
And the golden, bell-like tones of the exquisite andante 
from the Sonata Appassionata seemed to dwell in the air ; 
tones which Beethoven said was his own conception of the 
music of the spheres, for the movement occurred to him 
one night in the hills, while contemplating the stellar glories 
of a clear, tranquil sky. Oh, what majesty in such a night ! 
Oh, the solemn grandeur of this phase of nature ! Indeed, 
it is difficult to say which exerts the more powerful influ- 
ence over the mind : a gale of wind or a great, soundless 
33 353 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

calm, when every star in the firmament seems reflected in 
the motionless sea. 

Throughout this forenoon, too, the wind was of the light- 
est sort, though this fact wasproductive of some little diver- 
sion. Shortly after ten o'clock the captain called our at- 
tention to several sharks wandering about far down in the 
blue depths under the stern, and presently several dolphin 
appeared hovering about the rudder, offering, with their 
agility and marvellous coloring, a striking contrast to the 
slothful, sombre sharks. All at once the old man ran off, 
and then returned with a formidable engine of destruction, 
consisting of a huge iron hook strong enough to sustain an 
ox, with a short length of wire rope attached to it. His other 
hand clutched a mass of oleaginous pork, from which liquid 
fat exuded in the rays of a baking sun. This delicacy, the 
mere sight of which would revolt the stomach of an emu, 
the skipper gayly secured on the hook, and then bent the 
whole affair to a long line as big as the main-brace. This 
gear would really have been suitable for the capture of 
nothing smaller than a ninety-barrel whale ; but the cap- 
tain surveyed his arrangements with much urbanity and 
dropped the contrivance over the stern. There was no 
shark in sight, but one speedily appeared, and propelled 
himself with great caution toward the bait ; his eye caught 
the cable then to which it was fastened, and he sheered off. 
When he had manoeuvred thus several times, he seemed to 
summon his friends, for three more of the creatures mys- 
teriously appeared. They, too, were very shy at first ; but 
at length they began to turn slightly on their backs as they 
approached, a sure sign that before long they would seize 
the bait. At last the largest one swam boldly up to it, 
turned over, opened his wicked jaws, his double row of 
triangular teeth closed upon the extreme edge of the 
meat, and he deftly tore the whole piece off the hook, 

354 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

while he seemed to smile as he leisurely rejoined his com- 
panions. 

Then the skipper fetched another lump of pork-fat, 
which he kneaded and squelched in his hand as he walked 
along. Again the same wily beast took the bait, and once 
more we drew up the naked hook. After a repetition of 
this, the skipper, with much pomposity, rigged the harpoon 
and bade me stand by with it while he endeavored to entice 
the sharks close under the counter with another pound of 
pork. Several times I hove the weapon without the least 
risk to any of the sharks, though I all but followed the 
harpoon overboard at every lunge, and once contrived to 
stand in the bight of the rope, which nearly cut me in two ; 
and we could perceive the iron plunge down fathom after 
fathom in the transparent water. Finally I did strike one 
in the middle of the back, but the harpoon bounded off 
his tough hide and he glided away unharmed. This was 
discouraging, and we desisted soon afterward, as we had 
to carry on the attack under a terrific sun. The sharks 
looked unspeakably comfortable, sauntering around below 
the rudder, now sinking out of sight, now cleaving the 
surface at a distance with their sharp dorsal fins, upright 
like sabres, and I was secretly well pleased that we didn't 
kill one, for I must confess that the sight of a shark does 
not throw me into convulsions of horror, nor does it con- 
sume me with the fanatical thirst for slaughter, which is the 
general effect produced by the appearance of one of these 
beasts. 

Each of these sharks was attended by the familiar little 
pilot-fish, about the size of a small mackerel, with his body 
wonderfully marked with bands of dark blue and black, as 
sharply defined as the turning-post of a croquet set ; strange 
it surely is to see these tiny fellows fearlessly maintain their 
position just under the gaping mouth. 

355 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

' As indicated elsewhere, Mr. Goggins hasn't much to say 
these days, although he has recovered somewhat from the 
cataleptic state into which the stabbing of the second 
mate threw him. He was quite talkative last night in his 
watch, and congratulated me upon my not smoking, saying, 
"I'm glad to see you don't use these cigareets ; they're 
bad things, and I can tell you why, — 'cause they're full o' 
nicoline." 

The second mate is pulling slowly along, with sunken 
cheeks and hollow eyes, an ill-looking man, and what is 
more miserable than a sick sailor ? Every one aboard ship 
has his own duties to perform, and scant attention and no 
sympathy is vouchsafed to the luckless man confined to his 
room. Latitude, ii° 49' north ; longitude, 123° 5' west. 

August 29 

The northeast Trades ! Yes, the northeast Trades ! 
Even the skipper is pretty sure that they have arrived, 
though we are still three degrees south of where they gen- 
erally are in August. It is a piece of very good luck, for 
we all expected to be several days more in the Doldrums, 
and those who were on deck when the wind came in a 
squall at sunrise hardly dared to breathe or move for fear 
that it would be nothing but a puff. But as the hours wore 
on and the breeze momentarily increased, it was soon appar- 
ent that the Trades had reached us. How vastly different to- 
day is from yesterday ! Then, all stagnation and blighting, 
withering heat ; now, all motion and joy and sparkling sea. 
We had not a breath of air for eight solid hours last night, 
though, and the wrath of Abner Scruggs was very, very 
great. From eight to ten, during his watch on deck, we, 
sitting on the cabin-house, could hear him muttering and 
thumping away by the wheel-house, and we privately smiled 
thereat. Finally, after a couple of hours of this harlequin 

356 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

act, my wife went below ; and then I went over to him and 
listened to the liveliest sort of arguments that he had with 
himself for nearly an hour. In vain he tried to draw me 
into them, and as a last resort he began on Central Park. 
" That's a queer kind of a park, that is, where they won't 
let people walk on the grass. Why don' t they have it like 
the park in Sydney? What's a park for, anyway? Why 
don't they put the thing in a glass case?" But I let 
him gibber on, and when I turned in, a little later, he had 
wrought himself into one of his passions. 

A day or two ago I was reading at the wheel-house door. 
The hour was ten in the morning, and hardly a sound was 
to be heard. The old man was below asleep and the mate 
was at work on the main-deck. Old Kelly was steering, and 
suddenly he leaned over and said, " Can you tell me about 
where she is, sir?" in a whisper. Then he went on, "I 
want to tell you somethin' ; if 'twasn't for you and the 
lady there' d be trouble in this ship. " " There has been 
trouble," said I. Kelly glanced askance at me and an- 
swered disdainfully, " Ho ! I don't call that trouble ; that's 
what you expect when you ship in a Yankee. What I 
mean is real trouble that begins with M. But the men, 
even the worst of 'em, have got such a regard for your 
lady for the way she behaved of? Cape Horn, and all 
through the voyage for that matter, that they're holdin' in 
for her sake." Whether this was said with some ulterior 
motive it is impossible to tell ; but Kelly spoke in a calm 
voice as if he meant what he said. What he suggested by 
his mysterious M. was a word that I have never heard a 
sailor pronounce, — mutiny. To them it is a word too full 
of deadly meaning for ordinary conversation. For, gen- 
erally speaking, there are only two things aboard ship, — 
one is duty, and the other is mutiny. All that a seaman is 
ordered to do is duty ; all that he refuses to do is mutiny. 

357 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Rarx is beginning to lose heart as well as flesh, and says 
that if he lives to see the Farallones he'll surprise himself. 
This is unfortunate, and we are doing all we can to cheer 
him up. Latitude, 12° 30' north ; longitude, 124° 30' west. 

August 30 

Our course has been bad for twenty-four hours, as during 
the greater part of that period we steered nothing to the 
northward of west, and our present course would take us to 
Honolulu in 165°. Ships are generally forced over to 140° 
or 145° even under ordinary conditions, and if we do not 
find ourselves 20° west of San Francisco when the Trades 
let go, we will do well. The weather, though, is perfect ; 
warmer certainly than in the southeast Trades, but not at 
all disagreeable in the shade, — about 81° at mid-day. A 
very acceptable change since we took this wind is that there 
have been no more rain-squalls. During the late Dol- 
drums these squalls were at times practically continuous ; 
and while the old man did finally rig up a bit of canvas, 
six feet by six, to serve as an awning, under which we had 
to crouch as though in the 'tween-decks, it was not of 
much use in the rain. It was extremely annoying to have 
to gather up the backgammon-board, two novels, a lot of 
sewing, a pillow, and two chairs and dash for the wheel- 
house half a dozen times a watch. Often the squalls lasted 
only two or three minutes, yet there was enough water in 
each shower to drench everything. 

There is a very ingenious way of disposing of the main- 
top-sail and top-gallant-halliards on the ' ' Higgins. ' ' They 
are always very bulky, heavy ropes, and when coiled over 
a pin in the rail are very unsightly objects. To obviate 
this, there are two large reels in the monkey-rail at the for- 
ward end of the cabin-house, one on each side, upon which 
the free end of these ropes are wound when the yards have 

358 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

been mastheaded. A bit of twine then secures the reel to 
prevent the halUards paying out, and another piece stops it 
(the rope) up to the shrouds, clear of the men's heads on 
the main-deck. When the yards have to be lov/ered, a 
sharp jerk breaks the twine, and the halliards run of? without 
danger of fouling. It is a clever scheme and ought to be 
in more general use, the only drawback to it being that a 
hand has to mount the poop and reel up the halliards again 
when the yards have been hoisted ; but that is a small 
matter. 

I went down into the lazarette yesterday afternoon, after 
Louis had gone forward, and found that his quarters were 
not so stiflingly hot as might have been expected ; the 
Frenchman still bears his confinement with extraordinary 
indifference. Mr. Rarx passed a very bad night. Lati- 
tude, 13° 17' north ; longitude, 126° west. 

August 31 

On this, the last day of August, we have but little cause 
for rejoicing. In the first place, the wind has been dead 
against us and light at that ; and, in the second place, the 
captain is in so churlish a temper as to barely answer yes 
and no to civil questions. Shortly before four o'clock 
yesterday the wind began to ease up, and by nightfall had 
dwindled to a light air, and then whipped into the north- 
northwest, so that our course up to eight this morning was 
west, and we got that only by pinching her, so that our 
speed was seldom more than two knots. The night was a 
gorgeous one, with a sky that glistened with golden stars, 
while a new moon hung low down in the west ; and far 
away in the southeast, over the face of a black cloud, shim- 
mered waves of heat-lightning, lovely in the extreme. 

By morning, as there were no indications of coming up, 
the captain concluded to tack ship, which was done be- 

359 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

tween eight and nine o'clock ; and we discovered, when 
braced up on the port tack, that we looked up to north- 
northeast, which was by no means bad. At the present 
time, three in the afternoon, the wind is a fresh, even a 
strong breeze, and we are doing pretty well except for a 
long head-swell, into which we plunge so heavily that we 
are not doing more than five knots instead of seven or 
eight. 

The captain is in a worse humor than ever before, though 
it must be said that the evolution of tacking ship this 
morning was accomplished quietly, and, what is much 
more remarkable, without a single oath. Conversation at 
meals has been almost completely suspended again, except 
that my wife and I converse together, ignoring the captain 
entirely ; this would be childish behavior on our part were 
it not that every remark that we have made lately has met 
with either a rough denial or indifferent silence. He asked 
us the other day whether Captain Kingdon of the ' ' Man- 
dalore" used to lose his temper in calms and head- winds ; 
a question which we found much pleasure in answering in 
a vehement negative. The sailors have resumed most of 
their erstwhile good humor, perhaps on account of the 
proximity of the end of the voyage ; it is reassuring to see 
them thus again, for a score of brooding, scowling sailors 
aboard ship is an unpleasant reminder of what the men 
could do if they were determined. Indeed, from a pas- 
senger's point of view, I would far rather see a captain in a 
perpetual bad humor than the men. Considering all the 
ill-treatment that sailors get, it is extraordinary at first sight 
that they do not vindicate more frequently their wrongs at 
sea by quietly dropping the after-guard over the side. It is 
perfectly feasible to dispose of the officer of the watch at 
night. A single well-aimed blow of an iron belaying-pin 
in the helmsman's hand is all that is necessary ; and the 

360 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

captain and the other mate are asleep below and both could 
be readily made away with. But on close inspection two 
very strong reasons are disclosed showing why it is that 
the sailor does not more readily appear in the role of 
avenger. The first reason is, not being a navigator, what 
is to become of the ship ? and if they do reach a port, what 
credible story can be concocted ? Murder will out. The 
second reason is to be found in that wonderful sense of 
obedience to captain and officers apparent in even the 
most desperate and abandoned seamen ; so blind is their 
submission to authority, however grossly and fiendishly it 
may be abused, that they sometimes at the present day, in 
our own long-voyage ships, suffer death itself rather than 
resist him whom the law has invested with power so abso- 
lute that the might of a sultan suffers in comparison ! But 
too few of our sailing-ship-masters seem to be possessed 
of the ordinary feelings of humanity toward their crews. 
After they have exhausted all other defences in upholding 
their bad treatment of sailors, they nearly always conclude 
by saying, " Well, what have we got in our ships ? A lot 

of Dutch and English scum that you've got to lick h 

out of afore they'll obey an order." But how about the 
" S. P. Hitchcock" and the "St. James," commanded re- 
spectively by Captains Gates and Banfield ? Here are two 
deep-water American ships, who also have to take what- 
ever crews the shipping masters give them, so that they 
are not a whit better off in the quality of their sailors than 
other vessels ; yet there is never any trouble aboard of 
them at sea, and good-will and cheerfulness pervade both 
vessels. They have made some rattling good passages, 
and are positive proof that discipline can be obtained with- 
out violence ; and, after nearly four months' experience 
here, I believe that I am justified in expressing my opinion, 
which is, that brutality toward and the continual driving 

361 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

and hazing of sailors do not condtice to order and discipline. 
Commands are not obeyed here with the precision that 
they were on the "Mandalore," and many and many a 
time I have seen the men .make a great show of hauHng 
on the braces when in reahty they were not pulHng a hun- 
dred pounds. Knock them over for this? No, it only 
makes them worse next time, but that's what Yankee 
mates generally do. If work is to be got out of sailors, 
they must be treated justly to begin with ; if not, you will 
get no more out of them than out of any other class. 

The apathy and ignorance of people ashore is more re- 
markable than anything else in connection with this subject 
of brutality to sailors. I even know a young man who 
owns shares in some of our largest square- riggers who was 
utterly amazed when I told him of the record of one of his 
own captains. In justice to him, though, I must say that 
he took no personal interest in the ships other than that 
they should pay good dividends, and he really was in total 
ignorance of the modus operandi of American captains. 
But it is not so with the vast majority of our sailing-ship- 
owners, who are fully aware of the manner in which their 
vessels are run, and who go bail to the extent of many hun- 
dreds of dollars for their inhuman captains when the latter 
are occasionally held to answer for some particularly atro- 
cious deed, and who in many cases connive at the disap- 
pearance of blackguard mates when they are seeking to 
escape ashore from infuriated sailors whom these mates 
have half killed at sea. Cannot something be done to 
compel decent treatment of our long-voyage seamen? 
Sailors must be ruled with a hand of iron, for there are 
desperate characters among them ; but, in heaven's name, 
let him who wields the power be compelled to administer 
justice in his punishment of the men under him, that the 
disgrace and shame which now rest upon our long-voyage 

362 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

sailing ships may be removed, and that the offensive name 
of "Yankee hell-ship," by which our deep-water vessels 
are known to foreign sailors, may be forever obliterated. 
Latitude, 13° 43' north ; longitude, 127" west. 

September i 

Now in truth hath Disappointment come upon us and 
doth hover sullenly o'erhead on sable pinions. The Trades, 
the lovely northeast Trades, which we fondly imagined had 
reached us, did not materialize ! For, having blown fitfully 
for two days, driving us two degrees farther west, they 
vanished, and in their stead a fresh westerly wind has 
arisen, and the weather is once more sticky and showery 
and the heavens are piled high with huge wool-packs and 
glistening thunder-heads. But this is not all. We are 
plunging into a steep, heavy swell, that is surging down 
from the north in great, long, blue heaves ; and it is a 
grand thing to look forward and see the jib-boom now rear- 
ing up higher and higher towards the zenith, now diving 
down, down into the deep quiet hollows, as the ship tum- 
bles heavily to the catheads into the creamy waters. 

We had quite a lively time at dinner to-day, for the 
westerly wind had smoothed the kinks out of the old man's 
temper and he commenced a jocose argument with the mate 
about American politics. It will be remembered that Mr. 
Goggins is by birth an Englishman, but his papers give 
him the right to talk about " hour constitootion, " of which 
he takes advantage at every opportunity. I laughed at 
everything they said to egg them on, and at length they 
both began to wax wroth, the mate in a few minutes being 
quite wet with perspiration, so that at last all he could say 
was, "Be gar's sake, sir," which he repeated indefinitely 
like a hungry parrot asking for a cracker. Finally, though, 
the skipper spoiled the fun by getting really angry, and, 

363 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

gazing with piercing eye at Goggins for the space of half a 
minute, he utterly extinguished him with, "Well, I guess 
you' d better shut up ; you don' t seem to know much about 
it." Latitude, 15° north; longitude, 126° west. 

September 2 

Very strong winds from west shifting to southeast ; high, 
northerly sea ; excessive humidity and incessant rain- 
squalls. These have been the weather conditions for twelve 
hours, to which must be added a fall of thirty one-hun- 
dredths of an inch in the aneroid. Yesterday afternoon at 
four o'clock there were plenty of cyclonic indications round 
about us : a heavy swell, suffocating humidity, a wild, fero- 
cious look in the enormous cumulus clouds, and a curious 
hot wind that at times strangely increased to strong gusts 
that hummed with a dreary drone in the rigging and then 
instantly subsided. Towards live o'clock the windward 
horizon grew to a uniform gray, oily, and dull as lead, with 
an indescribably menacing aspect in the low, greasy scud 
that hurried in tattered wisps just over the mast-heads. The 
captain was very uneasy, and admitted the proximity (if not 
of a cyclone) of one of those furious summer northers that 
often sweep across the North Pacific ; and it must be re- 
membered that we are close to the cyclonic belt which 
extends out into the ocean from the Central American 
seaboard. 

At dusk both wind and sea had increased, and by eight 
o' clock we were charging into a swell large enough to merit 
the term majestic, the bowsprit rising and falling fully fifty 
feet, for the sea was from dead ahead, and there was wind 
enough to drive the ship rapidly up the slope of a billow 
and then far out into space, so that she fell full upon the 
breast of the next sea with a crushing force that must have 
wrenched every timber in her hull. 

364 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

At 9. 30, as the captain and I were on the poop discussing 
the second mate, there came a report from aloft, and there 
was the mizzen-royal in ribbons, snapping and popping 
merrily away in the darkness. Then the skipper cast loose 
his deep-sea voice so that it must surely have reached force 
12 in Beauford's scale, and the sail was secured in short 
order. Throughout the night we labored heavily, while the 
seas thundered over the bows and dashed against the for- 
ward house with alarming fury, and then washed aft, where 
the water in the waist was to be measured in feet, not in 
inches. Broadhead said that at times, in the middle watch, 
the ship buried herself to the light-houses, and that he 
hadn't seen much more water aboard off Cape Horn. At 
three this morning came another discharge from aloft, and 
away went four whole cloths out of the lee side of the up- 
per foretop-sail, and when daylight came we had to send 
up a new sail. 

During the morning watch the wind shifted suddenly to 
southeast, and when we went on deck it was blowing half 
a gale from that desirable quarter, and the ship, with braces 
well rounded in, was fairly skipping from sea to sea, save 
when her speed was momentarily checked by an extra 
heavy one that smote her rudely full in the face and then 
fell in glorious showers over the forecastle. Another fine 
spectacle was afforded whenever one of the short seas, occa- 
sioned by the shift of wind, struck the big, clumsy main- 
channels, when the spray shot far into the air and was swept 
across the deck in snowy clouds. Altogether, it was a 
scene of wonderful beauty, and we rejoiced to observe that 
the dun, threatening look of the heavens had given place 
to dense masses of trade-clouds and promises of plenty of 
clear sunshine ; and if the night was a boisterous one and 
the port watch had to pass the whole of the forenoon at the 
pumps, our run of two hundred miles wreathed every one's 

365 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

face in jolly smiles, and ' ' ' Frisco' ' was heard repeatedly in 
the men's conversation. 

Writing of hurricanes awhile ago, reminds me of the 
pertinacity with which the great majority of the people in 
our Western States allude to their terrible tornadoes as 
cyclones. It would be reasonable to presume that the in- 
habitants of a district subject to any peculiar atmospheric 
disturbance would know and make use of the proper term 
for such a phenomenon, but it seems not. Hurricane and 
cyclone are synonymous, and are applied to circular storms 
having a diameter of from three hundred to one thousand 
miles, in which the wind seldom attains a velocity of over 
one hundred miles per hour, a pressure of about fifty 
pounds per square foot. They have also a progressive 
motion varying in speed from twenty-eight miles per hour 
in the United States to only eight or nine miles in the Bay 
of Bengal. 

Tornadoes are also gyratory storms that progress in a 
straight line at a mean speed of thirty miles an hour, but 
their path is almost infinitesimal compared with the cy- 
clone's, for it is generally between one thousand and six 
thousand feet in width and about forty miles long, each 
individual storm completely dissolving and vanishing like a 
thunder-squall in less than an hour. A cyclone may blow 
for days. 

In the fury of its rotary motion and upward suction a 
tornado is the most appalling of all natural phenomena save, 
perhaps, the earthquake, and the passing of one causes the 
most incredible and seemingly impossible freaks. Chickens 
are stripped of their feathers, straws are driven firmly into 
planks, and locomotives weighing fifty tons have been over- 
turned without effort, the latter being possible by the for- 
mation of a partial vacuum. Straws, however, have been 
driven an eighth of an inch into a plank by an artificial 

366 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

blast of air moving at the rate of one hundred and sixty 
miles per hour. The presence of a vacuum is proved by 
the violent bursting outward of the closed windows and 
shutters of a house in or near the track of a tornado. 

Many people will remember the dire results of the famous 
St. Louis tornado of May, 1896, which resulted in the 
death of two hundred and twenty-five persons and the loss 
of twelve million dollars in property destroyed ; yet there 
is no reason to suppose that this storm was an unusually 
severe one ; it simply happened to pass over a more or less 
densely populated region. As usual, this tornado left be- 
hind some remarkable mementos, the strangest of all being 
that a piece of pine plank was driven by the wind head-on 
through the five-sixteenths inch web of an iron girder in 
the approach to the St. Louis bridge ! This is a perform- 
ance well known to the government Weather Bureau. Im- 
mense blocks of sandstone set in cement were dislodged 
and thrown down (in all, five hundred and eighty tons of 
it), together with two hundred and eighty tons of flooring 
and girders, some of the latter weighing thirteen thousand 
pounds each. In Lafayette Park, St. Louis, another ex- 
ample of tornadic vagaries was shown by the fact that, 
right in the path of the storm, surrounded closely by forest- 
trees which had been wrenched bodily from the earth, 
stood unharmed a flimsy, straw-thatched structure upon 
six light posts ! 

Unfortunately, from the very violence of the wind, no 
accurate estimate of the velocity of the gyratory miovement 
of a tornado can be made, as an anemometer would be 
useless, even if it were not destroyed. Experts calculate, 
however, that the speed of the wind approximates five 
hundred or six hundred miles per hour. At any rate, the 
destructive force of a tornado is ten or perhaps twenty 
times that of a cyclone ; and if cyclones blew with the vio- 

367 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

lence of tornadoes, the earth would be devastated in a short 
while. 

. At sea the tornado with its terrible cloud-funnel has its 
counterpart in the water-spout ; though in the latter the 
wind does not seem to attain the same fury, as many ves- 
sels have passed through a water-spout without very great 
damage. Two curious instances, however, are on record 
of atmospheric freaks at sea ; one of them was reported by 
the American ship ' ' Reaper. ' ' She was proceeding to- 
ward Cape Horn in the equatorial North Pacific, the day 
being perfectly fine and clear, save for a few small, detached 
clouds, and the wind a light breeze, when she suddenly lost 
all of her light sails in a blast that came apparently out of a 
dear sky, while at the moment there was nothing but the 
light wind on deck. Again, the ship " Sintram," Captain 
Woodside, was almost totally dismasted off the West Indies, 
homeward bound from the East ; the weather was fine and 
a four-knot breeze was blowing on deck when the upper 
spars seemed to melt away, she having been struck by a 
similar blast from a clear sky. Subsequently I wrote to 
the forecast official at New York asking whether any such 
accidents ever happened ashore ; he answered that in Ne- 
braska and Kansas similar strong whirlwinds have been 
known, in perfectly clear weather, to tear the upper por- 
tions of forest-trees completely off, including large branches, 
while the leaves and twigs nearer the ground were un- 
touched. This indisputably proves that only a few feet 
mark the boundary-line between atmosphere in a state of 
rest and wind of inconceivable violence. As has been 
shown, such instances occur also in tornadoes, which, of 
course, are nothing but immense whirlwinds. 

It is my earnest hope that the reader has not been wor- 
ried by this long meteorological dissertation, which has 
nothing to do with the voyage ; but as the forecasting of 

368 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

the weather has lately been of increasing interest to the 
public, perhaps I may be pardoned for my digression. 
Latitude, 17° 55' north ; longitude, 125° 30' west. 

September 3 

It seems to be tolerably safe to say now that at last we 
have picked up the northeast Trades. During yesterday 
afternoon the wind hauled constantly to the northward, 
and at ten last night it was northeast by north, blowing a 
fresh breeze ; indeed, by this morning it had increased so 
that we have not been able to carry the sky-sails since, and 
we did another three degrees of latitude ; imagine three 
hundred and fifty miles of latitude here in forty-eight hours. 
It is very refreshing, and even the skipper has recovered 
his equanimity. Up to noon to-day, though, the weather 
was very showery, the fine rain blowing in level clouds 
across the ship, as dense as fog. The greatest change, 
however, is in the temperature, for the air has fallen 15° 
and the sea 10°, so that we begin to appreciate that in 
thirty-six hours, if this wind holds, we will have emerged 
from the torrid zone. It is quite impossible for us to 
realize that in another fortnight this voyage will probably 
be an event of the past. No one who has not made a 
long voyage can imagine the excitement, actually the 
excitement, occasioned by the speculation as to how much 
longer the passage will last, when only ten days or so 
remain. There is continuously present such an element 
of luck when solely dependent upon the wind, that you are 
constantly estimating and calculating how far the Trades 
will extend, how the winds will be afterward, the chances 
of fogs and calms on the coast, and other equally im- 
portant questions. This doesn't mean necessarily that 
you want to get ashore ; it is the involuntary and irresisti- 
ble anticipation of an impending change, though my wife 
i4 3^->9 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

will probably not regret the moment when the tow-boat 
gives us her line outside the Heads. Latitude, 20° 52' 
north ; longitude, 126° 40' west. 

September 4 

This was a perfectly ideal day, with brisk northeast winds, 
smooth sea, cloudless sky, and a noon temperature of 72°, 
and 68° at midnight. This is a very lucky chance that we 
are having here ; we are going well, about eight knots, and 
our course has been to the northward of northwest by 
north, showing that the Trades are well to the eastward. 

I wonder how many people have ever seen the scale of 
provisions as laid down by the United States government 
for the vitualling of long-voyage ships ? As I have said, 
the curious part of it is, though, that no attention is ever 
paid to it on our ships, except under unusual conditions. 
Yet it is not so very curious that no attempt is made to 
observe the scale, for almost everything in connection with 
our sailors and ships is performed in an irregular manner. 
Behold the scale. 



Sunday. . . 

Monday . . 

Tuesday . . 
Wednesday 

Thursday . 

Friday . . . 

Saturday . . 















td 




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M 


CL, 


b 


cu 


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Lb. 


Lbs. 
1% 


Lbs. 


Lb. 


Pt. 


Oz. 

Vz 


Oz. 

'A 
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Ozs. 
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2 




1% 


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Qts. 
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Then comes a list of substitutes, such as molasses for 
sugar, potatoes for pease, etc. Other nations also have 

370 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

provision scales, but they are adhered to ; foreign schemes 
add oatmeal, but all sailors get too much meat ; both 
captains and seamen say that. Our blue-water ships 
have a great name for fine "grub," which they deserved 
forty years ago, but which most of them certainly do not 
now. A Yankee captain has the privilege from the owners 
to lay in whatever sort of stores he thinks fit (of course 
neither he nor the owner ever thinks of the law) ; if he is 
a generous man, the crew are lucky ; if not, it's a case of 
hunger and hustle for four or five months. As a sample 
of the manner in which the food has been given out here, 
the men consumed an entire barrel of molasses during the 
first seventeen days that we were at sea ; since then 
they have had none. Other articles were scattered around 
in the same reckless manner, with the natural result that 
the "dainties" which ought to have lasted the whole 
voyage had vanished at the latitude of the Falklands ; so 
that ever since the men have been on pretty hard rations, 
and Broadhcad told me that when the old man made the 
show of putting all hands on government allowance it 
didn' t mean anything at all. Since the stabbing, though, 
all the food has been v/eighed out by the mate each day in 
full view of the sailors, eighteen pounds of bread {i.e., 
hard-tack), so many pounds of beef, etc., and the men 
themselves carry it to the cook, so that there can be no 
fault-finding. As to the water, three quarts per day 
amounts in all to fifty-four quarts, which is measured into 
a cask in the forecastle, and the men are at liberty to give 
any portion of it they choose to the cook in which to boil 
their beef and pork, or tea and coffee. These three 
quarts, by the way, are for all purposes, drinking, cooking, 
and washing, though most foremast hands are not much 
troubled with the latter, except when it rains hard. Each 
man probably does not have more than a quart and a half 

371 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

of drinking water a day, which is a truly scanty allowance 
for men who are painting on a blistering deck several hours 
out of the twenty-four. 

American captains profess to think that weighing out 
food to sailors is very degrading, and they always add, 
"It's too much like them Britishers." Personally I have 
never been able to perceive where the indignity comes in. 
Food is weighed out in the navy, so why not in the mer- 
chant service ? I had it on my mind to-day to ask Captain 
Scruggs which he really considered the more debasing, 
giving a man a stipulated quantity of food, or knocking his 
teeth out with wooden or iron implements and then kicking 
him into the scuppers ; but I thought it best to preserve 
peace rather than advance so hazardous a question. Lati- 
tude, 23° 18' north ; longitude, 128° 40' west, 

September 5 

Oh, what magnificent weather this is ! It is just like 
those grand days in the southeast Trades. Our everlast- 
ing recollections of the Pacific Ocean, both north and 
south, will be of weeks of a matchless climate ; deep cobalt 
sky, sprinkled with little pink, cirrus clouds ; a calm sea 
over which shoot thousands of flying-fiish in glittering 
flight, and soft, enchanting breezes. ' ' What about those 
two or three disagreeable days not long ago?" says the 
pessimist. True, they were not ideal days ; but they only 
serve to show off these lovely ones in all their glorious 
perfection. We have, unhappily, passed the limits of the 
tropics, however, having crossed the circle of Cancer yes- 
terday at four o'clock. 

A few minutes ago, at the pumps, Broadhead asked me, 
' ' Would you mind telling me why you came out here in 
an American ship?" I told him why, — that, having made 
one voyage in an Englishman, we wanted to compare the 

372 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

vessels ; and I also reminded him that foreign ships are not 
allowed to trade between American ports. ' ' Well, you 
and the lady must have lots of courage," said he. " Now 
there's the Loch Line of ships to Australia out of London ; 
you ought to have gone in one o' them." " Yes ; MacFoy 
told me about them," said L "Well, they're worth all 
you can say in favor of 'em," continued this American ; 
"they're dandies; carry lots o' passengers, first- and 
second-class and steerage. Each ship has what they call a 
double crew ; say a ship had fourteen men before the mast, 
one o' these would have twenty-eight, so the whole of an 
ordinary ship's crew is on deck at one time, and not a 
stroke o' work is ever done aloft after eight in the morning, 
so that nothing can drop on passengers' heads." This 
may seem like getting things down to too fine a point ; but 
any one who has voyaged in a sailing vessel will remember 
how many articles drop from men working aloft. We have 
seen at least a dozen objects fall during the voyage, — 
knives, paint-brushes, and serving-mallets, any one of 
which dropping on a man's head from a height of at least 
a hundred feet would be very painful, not to say dan- 
gerous. 

Perhaps the most remarkable and unusual device to en- 
able the captain of a vessel to pocket the wages of a crew 
appears in a copy of a maritime paper, which I found to- 
day in a bundle of the skipper's magazines. It was perpe- 
trated by the master of the British ship "S ," and 

consisted in his taking a quantity of liquors of divers sorts 
to sea and retailing them to the men at immense profit. 
An investigation at Liverpool showed that this enter- 
prising man had bought twenty cases of whiskey at three 
dollars and a half a dozen, which he sold to the crew at one 
dollar per bottle. He also had large stores of gin and beer 
on board, and the amount of money that the captain must 

373 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

have cleared by the various transactions may be imagined 
when it is mentioned that the carpenter' s bill for liquors for 
one voyage footed up a total of sixty-seven dollars, and the 
men testified that some of them averaged a bottle a day. 
It seemed to me that the captain's punishment was rather 
light, as it consisted in suspending his certificate for three 
months. Of course, this is a penalty which could not be 
inflicted upon an American captain, because none of our 
sailing-ship-masters has a government certificate. Our law- 
givers do not think that any is necessary, though they re- 
quire a stiff examination in the case of a steam-ship-master, 
another sparkling example of the perfection of the United 
States shipping laws. Latitude, 25° 47' north ; longitude, 
130° 46' west. 

September 6 

After breakfast this morning we trembled when we found 
the wind letting go, for everything indicated a cessation in 
the Trades ; but at ten o'clock they freshened again, and 
since then we have swung handsomely along over a light 
swell at seven knots. This is very gratifying, and every 
day sees us a hundred and seventy-five miles nearer port. 
My wife is beginning to rejoice at the prospect of fresh 
vegetables and fruit, though I think I could live very com- 
fortably on the present diet for at least a year. I had to 
tell the captain to-day, though, not to have any more stews 
for my sake, for I couldn't possibly eat another one. This 
is not astonishing, because, when a week out from New 
York, I happened to express a desire for a stew, and on 
every single day since then I have eaten some of this con- 
coction at least once and at times twice. Four solid, unin- 
terrupted months of stews are apt to produce a surfeit 
thereof. What was worse than anything else, though, was 
that the steward, desiring to enrich the gravy, at length 

374 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

became addicted to the disagreeable habit of thrusting 
large pieces of aged, canned butter into each stew, after 
turning it out of the sauce-pan, so that when the dish 
reached the table the surface of the stew glittered with 
little iridescent, golden globules, that danced upon it like 
drops of yellow quicksilver. Thus decorated, it was a 
very pleasing dish to contemplate, though familiarity with 
it bred contempt. 

Every day now, particularly at supper, we enter the 
dining-room with distended eyes, trying to discover some 
surprise in the culinary department. Usually, however, 
when the covers are removed, there lie disclosed the same 
old standbys, — stewed beef or mutton, cold beef and ham, 
biscuits, and boiled potatoes the size of hot-house grapes, 
though none the worse for that. Indeed, we went to sea 
with several barrels of new Bermuda potatoes at ten dollars 
the barrel ; this will show the unstinted manner in which 
this ship was stored aft. 

Sometimes, though, we are stunned by some fantastic 
creation of the Chinaman's. Last night, for instance, when 
the steward whipped of? the huge pewter covers, each al- 
most as big as an umbrella, we were entranced by the ap- 
pearance of something entirely new. In a deep vegetable 
dish lay four enormous Welsh rarebits ? Oh, the gladness 
of that moment ! What mattered it that the bread was a 
blood relative of india-rubber, that the rarebits were clammy 
and inflexible, or that the rind of a pineapple cheese had 
contributed to their manufacture ? Were they not a change, 
and as such to be venerated and exalted beyond price? 
Therefore we helped ourselves reverently, as became so 
momentous an occasion ; and if the compound did pro- 
duce an incalculable amount of subsequent distress, we ex- 
tended meek thanks and congratulations to the little Can- 
tonite in the galley. In truth, though, there is no fault of 

375 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

any sort to be found with the cabin food ; it is every bit as 
good as when we started. 

Last evening, in the second dog-watch, the Scotch bosun 
came up to me on the main-deck and asked how we were 
getting on. I told him, very well indeed ; and then he 
said, ' ' Before we left I heard that a gentleman and his 
wife were going out in the ship, and be gob I felt sorry for 
them." Good old MacFoy ! He is continuously solicitous 
for our welfare ; and a day or two ago he came aft with a 
copy of Dickens' s ' ' Christmas Stories' ' which he had 
found in the forecastle library furnished by the Seamen's 
Friend Society, and said that he had found a fine sea story 
for me to read in the book, called ' ' The Wreck of the 
Golden Mary. " It is a fact worthy of note that this rough 
sailor-man is the only individual whom I have ever met 
who has read this delightful account of a shipwreck off 
Cape Horn. The best-read man whom I ever knew said 
that he had never even heard of it. In every art, though, 
there seem to be one or two jewels that exist unknown 
even to the connoisseur. How many musicians are there, 
thorough musicians though they may be, who know the 
gorgeous, glorious chorus in A, andante sostenuto, from 
Schubert's Lazarus? Gorgeous in its tone colors, glorious 
in its fire and rhythm, it is an almost unknown fragment 
from that transcendent mind. Latitude, 27° 58' north ; 
longitude, 132° 20' west. 

September 7 

Nothing but a faint breeze remains of the northeast 
Trades. In the Pacific at this season they are generally a 
failure, and they carried us through only twelve degrees of 
latitude. We are beginning to appreciate how hard it is 
going to be to get into the land in the latitude of San 
Francisco, unless we soon take the westerly winds that are 

376 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

supposed to blow out here. We are now well to the west- 
ward of ' Frisco, ten degrees in fact, and it is impossible to 
calculate how much farther we will have to go ; old Gog- 
gins, a year ago, bound up to Nanaimo from Acapulco, 
fetched over to i6o° west before he got a slant north. To- 
day is a great deal warmer than yesterday, with at times a 
nearly glassy sea and one hundred and ten miles of the 
two degrees of latitude that we made were done in the 
first sixteen hours. 

Last evening I had another session with the garrulous 
Scot. "I'll tell ye somethin' about the ' H. D. Mac- 
Gregor' ; she's the toughest ship I ever was in, though 
there's one still worse. Cap'n Summers is a corker ; he's 
a little man, but very broad and strong, with a fearful 
temper ; he's all bruk up, though." 

" What broke him up?" said I. 

"Jumpin' after the men," answered David; "he's 
hardly got a sound bone in his body ; they do say his 
back's broke, but I never thought it. But I did see him 
smash one of his legs. He had that temper that if he 
wanted to reach a man he just jumped down on top of 
him where he stood. I mind one afternoon, just before 
we got into 'Frisco two or three years ago, when I was 
bosun with him, one of the men was doin' somethin' aft 
on the main-deck. Summers said a few words to him, and 
the feller didn't say ' yes, sir,' soon enough to suit him, so 
th' old man jumped right off the poop down on the main- 
deck, full eight feet. He meant to lep on top o' the sailor ; 
but just as he jumped the ship give a roll, and he fell into a 
water-barrel near by. His left leg brought up sharp ag'in' 
the chimes o' the cask, and crack ! went his thigh-bone. 
Lucky for him we were only two days from port, and we 
fixed him up pretty well till we got in." 

Yesterday afternoon the top of the deck-house was 

377 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

painted a beautiful, lustrous, pearly gray, and very fine it 
looked, glistening in the bright sunshine. Not a drop of 
rain had fallen all day until fifteen minutes after it was 
finished, when a light shower passed over us, extending 
not five hundred yards in any direction. It lasted not one 
minute, but it completely ruined the wet paint ; and it was 
then that we heard the gentle voice of the mate raised in 
blasphemous remonstrance. Latitude, 29° 48' north ; lon- 
gitude, 134° 6' west. 

September 8 

Just as we had finished writing up our journals yesterday 
afternoon there came a loud patter of rain overhead and a 
heavy puff from the eastward that laid the ship well over. 
Still, we didn't pay much attention to it for some time ; but, 
finding that we moved steadily along without righting, I 
went on deck to find the ocean covered with white-caps 
to the horizon, which was thick with dense, gray, very 
windy-looking clouds. We were flying through the water 
at ten knots, and heading up north by west true, which 
was very fine ; but, even as we looked, there came a slight 
but portentous heave from ahead that foretold a northerly 
swell. And so it proved, for by 8 p. m. our progress had 
dwindled to six knots, as we went pitching and diving into 
an ugly head-sea. It is astonishing how even a moderately 
heavy swell from ahead will check the speed of a ship, 
even with a strong wind blowing. A steamer will cleave 
right through a tall swell without any perceptible difference 
in her speed, a fact proved to us once when, in crossing the 
Atlantic in the " Etruria," we encountered a head-sea that 
buried the entire bows at every plunge ; yet the speed was 
lowered by only a quarter of a knot. Even a sailing yacht 
will overcome a head-swell in a very creditable manner ; 
but when a massive, clumsy square-rigger runs into one, 

378 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

farewell to even a moderate run. She stops at every sea 
for an appreciable time, till the impetus of so ponderous a 
mass asserts itself and she tumbles into the next valley. 
So it was with us all through the night, though we made 
good a fine course north-northwest. 

A fact little known generally is that in former years 
there existed in our ships what was known as a hospital 
tax. It was finally abandoned, not more than fifteen years 
ago, and consisted in each man's paying forty cents a 
month as long as he was on board a given vessel toward a 
common fund, the total sum being handed to the proper 
persons on the ship's arrival for the maintenance of the 
marine hospital at the port to which she was bound, pro- 
vided that such a port was of sufficient importance to war- 
rant an institution of this sort. I think this was a pretty 
good idea, and cannot think why it was abolished. On a 
ship like this one, for instance, the amount at the end of a 
four-months' voyage would be nearly forty dollars. Yet no 
one on board would feel the loss of the dollar and a half 
that he had contributed. Latitude, 32° 7' north ; longi- 
tude, 135° 6' west. 

September 9 

Yesterday afternoon a sail was sighted from the fore-sky- 
sail-yard, and at once threw everybody into tumult of ex- 
citement. Truly, a long time had passed since we had 
beheld a vessel of any sort, for the last time that we saw 
anything fashioned by man's hand was seven weeks ago, 
of? the Horn. We beat this record on our first voyage, 
however, when sixty-five days passed without our sighting 
a vessel. The ship "I. F. Chapman," however, arrived at 
New York from Manila shortly before we sailed, having been 
at sea one hundred and twenty-five days, and during all that 
time not a single craft of any description sailed into her ken ! 

379 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

At five o' clock the upper sails of our new friend were in 
sight from the deck, and I walked to the break of the poop, 
where the mate was, to ask his opinion of her. He was 
extremely pompous, and talked with such assurance that 
you would suppose he had just come off the stranger. She 
had not risen to her upper topsails when Mr. Goggins said, 
" Ho ! I know 'er ; she's a barkentine that trades between 
San Francisco and the Hawaiian Islands!" (I have never 
met a captain or mate who said Sandwich Islands. ) This 
was to exhibit his infinite knowledge of the Pacific coast. 
Now, when hull down, I make it a rule never to contradict 
a sailor when he gives an opinion as to how a square-rigger 
is sailing, whether on or of? the wind, or what her precise 
rig is ; few objects are more puzzling, even to an expe- 
rienced eye. But on this occasion I had a pair of very 
excellent glasses on the vessel, and suggested that she was 
either a bark or a ship steering by the wind. " Naw, naw," 
shouted the mate, with a backward sweep of his arm ; 
"she's a barkentine, a-runnin' free." An hour later it 
proved to be a British ship close-hauled on the port tack, 
standing to the eastward. The mate was overwhelmed 
with chagrin, but his cup of misery was not yet full, for 
when the old man went on deck last night at ten, the moon 
being very bright, he asked him whether the ship was still 
in sight, to which the mate answered, "She's not, sir." 
"Then what's that?" asked the skipper, pointing under 
the spanker. There, on the quarter, dim, but in plain 
view, was the handsome stranger, and she had gone around 
on our tack. 

Last evening we witnessed a sunset that was the most 
impressive of the whole voyage. An hour before the sun 
disappeared we noticed great cumulo-nimbus clouds mar- 
shalling themselves in the west, the horizon then being 
veiled in a curious, diaphanous mist. When we came up 

380 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

from supper, though, the sun had nearly reached the sea- 
rim, and for ten minutes we were the enchanted spectators 
of most exquisite cloud scenery. High up toward the zenith 
two ranges of heavy, gloomy cloud mountains were reared, 
peak on peak, forming in themselves a scene of remarkable 
grandeur, and right between these purple ramparts, and 
just then touching the horizon, lay the great, blazing globe 
of fire, edging the immense vapory masses with a fringe as 
of living flame and transmuting the clouds into glowing 
pictures of the Delectable Mountains, more beautiful than 
artist ever conceived, with a suggestion of the Celestial 
City itself in the surpassing glory of the moment. As 
Handel said when composing the " Messiah," " I did think 
that I did see all heaven before me, and the great God Him- 
self. " The entire spectacle was visible through the thin 
mist, now changed into a veil of radiant bronze, putting a 
finishing touch upon a scene which, for magnificence of col- 
oring and stately splendor, we have never seen equalled. 

No sooner had the orb of day vanished than out soared 
the moon from behind a sable cloud and a night of ineffable 
peace and purity followed, with now and then a weird effect 
produced by a guny floating slowly across the moon's face, 
with the appearance of a gigantic, prehistoric bat. Oh, how 
superb Nature is when viewed thus from the deck of a sailing 
ship ! How can a man deny God at such moments as these ? 
How can he say that he is lonely when he is surrounded by 
such wonderful memorials of His earthly magnificence? 
Latitude, 34° 5' north ; longitude, 137° 14' west. 

September 10 

We can stand but very little more of this northerly wind, 
for we are getting very anxious to go on the other tack. 
Last night and this morning the wind was very unsteady, 
and we alternately broke off to west-northwest and came up 

381 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

to northwest by north. It would be useless to tack ship as 
long as we can hold as good a course as the former, for we 
would have to make a little southing on the other leg. By 
to-morrow we will probably be in the latitude of our destina- 
tion, though a thousand miles west of it, and the skipper 
intimates that he will then let her come round whether 
or no. 

This morning, it being the first occasion for a long while, 
we had a brace of fresh eggs for breakfast, which when 
poached were so indescribably delicious that the memory 
of them lingered long and sweetly in the palate. It is only 
about once in three weeks that our barren, emaciated hens 
honor us in this fashion, and when they do, our gratitude 
is boundless. Ordinarily, my wife's breakfast consists of 
fresh, crisp soda biscuit, a boiled potato, and a cup of cocoa ; 
my own comprising soda biscuit, potatoes, jam, and tepid 
water. It is a matter of surprise to every one who has ex- 
perienced a lack of ice how readily one becomes accus- 
tomed to being without it ; by the seventh or eighth day 
the desire for iced water has passed entirely away and 
doesn't return except in case of illness. People generally 
regard a man who refuses any of the customary matutinal 
beverages with the most extreme astonishment ; when he 
declines coffee, they open their eyes ; when he refuses tea, 
they begin to murmur ; and when he also denies cocoa, 
they drop everything and look intently at him, as though 
they expected to discover some visible proof of his absti- 
nence. ' ' Why, but your health, ' ' these people cry ; ' ' every 
one needs something hot in the morning." This is quite 
false, even in winter weather, as any one can prove to one's 
own satisfaction by shunning so strong a stimulant as cofiee 
for a fortnight and taking only water at breakfast ; nearly 
everybody would feel great benefit from such a course in less 
than a week. 

382 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

One would think that long-voyage ship-masters would 
grow to detest salt and dried meats and tinned vegetables, 
but they do not ; and Captain Scruggs affirms that after 
one or two good ' ' feeds' ' of fresh meat ashore after every 
voyage he wants to return to his salt beef ; and I have yet 
to see the captain or mate who preferred the finest pressed 
tongue and canned corned beef to ordinary salt junk ; they 
cling to it with a truly wonderful pertinacity. 

The captain detailed to us last evening the ingenious 
method of loading coal at Newcastle, Australia. A ship 
there hauls in close to the pier, along the edge of which 
extends a railway track. A train of coal-cars is then 
backed down on the wharf, each car holding five tons. 
They are then uncoupled, a hydraulic crane lifts each one 
silently from the track, swings it over a given hatch, the 
bottom drops automatically, precipitating the coal into the 
hold, and the car is then swung back again and placed on 
the rails, and another takes its place. The same method is 
now or was once employed at Newport, Wales. 

In the United States chutes are in general favor for load- 
ing colliers, especially in the coastwise trade, which is con- 
ducted by means of fore-and-aft schooners, some of which 
are as large as many ships. The ' ' W. B. Palmer, ' ' for 
instance, registers about two thousand tons, with a carrying 
capacity of thirty-five hundred, equal to that of the ' ' Hosea 
Higgins," while several range well over fifteen hundred 
registered tons. In spite of the encroachments of steam, 
these mammoth schooners seem to more than hold their 
own, as the fleet is constantly being increased. Ten years 
ago a vessel like the " Governor Ames," or any of the Ran- 
dalls, paid from twenty to twenty-five per cent. , though the 
profits are now probably somewhat reduced. The ' ' Ames' ' 
has loaded twenty-five hundred tons of coal at Norfolk in 
nine hours, which is the best work on record, as this in- 

3^3 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

eluded trimming, and everything else, all ready for sea. 
This phenomenal speed was attained by simultaneously 
working the four hatches, rivers of coal continuously sliding 
into the hold through the chutes. At Aden and Port Said 
the steamers are coaled entirely by hand in quite an inter- 
esting manner : A lighter of coal is secured alongside a 
steamer, aboard of which is a swarm of black men, mostly 
Kroumen, each with a shallow, wicker basket as large as a 
dish-pan. As soon as the lighter is made fast two cargo 
ports are opened in the steamer's hull, one forward and one 
abaft the bunkers. The men then fill their baskets, which 
they carry upon their heads, and march in single file through 
the forward port, empty their baskets as they pass the 
bunkers without pausing, and issue from the after-opening 
into the lighter, where a freshly-filled basket awaits each. 
So great is the number of men that a solid black stream 
passes through the steamer ; and though each basket holds 
but twenty pounds of coal, it is loaded into the bunk- 
ers at the rate of one hundred tons per hour. On our 
return from India in a P. and O. steamer through the Red 
Sea we coaled thus at Aden, by electric light ; the weather 
was drizzly (itself a curiosity), and when the moisture 
condensed on the naked, sooty backs of the Kroumen, 
they appeared as though clad in a mail of sparkling jet ; 
and as they maintained a dismal chant throughout the 
process, the whole scene resembled a picture from the land 
of gnomes and pixies. Latitude, 35° 50' north ; longitude, 
139° 20' west. 

September ii 

The winter of our discontent is now at its height. Vainly 
do we endeavor to make easting ; we cannot, for the wind 
for a long time has been at northeast instead of between 
north and west, as it should be. At four this morning, ex- 

384 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

asperated beyond endurance, I heard the skipper growl to 
the mate, " We'll let her go round, anyway ; maybe we'll 
fetch Cape San Lucas. ' ' We did make good an easterly 
course for a while, but at five we broke off to east- southeast, 
which, with the variation, was southeast three-quarters 
east, a preposterous course ; so we went around again at 
eight, and are still pegging away on the starboard tack, 
making good north by west, and only twenty miles south 
of 'Frisco. 

Every opportunity the daur Scot has for conversation 
now he embraces. At seven last evening, sitting on the 
main- hatch, he said, "I'll bet you never heard what * Long 
John' (Pettersen) said to the mate one night off Cape Horn ; 
'twas that night when we had the worst snow-squalls. I 
dunno what the row was about, but Mr. Goggins called 
John up on the poop and began to blackguard him ; then 
he let him have it once or twice in the face about as hard 
as I ever saw, and was just goin' to kick him down the 
poop-ladder, when down jumps Long John on the main- 
deck, turns around and yells, ' You come down here and 

I'll break yer neck !' and he'd 'a done it, too. 

What did Mr. Goggins do ? Walked aft and looked into 
the binnacle. 'That settles you in my mind, me buck,' 
says I to meself. I don't believe he had a right to hit 
John, for, if I do say so, he's the willingest sailor I ever 
had to do with ; but when John dared him to come down 

off the poop Well, that's the sort o' stuff the mate's 

made of ; he hasn't got the sand of a worm. But look, 
sir, I want to tell ye somethin' more about the Australian 
packets. The best and finest voyage I ever had in all me 
life was in one o' those ships, the ' Loch Rannoch.' " (I 
love to hear MacFoy roll out his sonorous .Scottish names. ) 
' ' We had a hundred and eighteen passengers, most o' 
them, of course, in the ' tween-decks, which was fitted up 
25 385 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

wi' bunks for ' em. Oh ! but we had the fun that passage, 
though the rules are strict, just Hke in the navy, and well 
they need be. The emigrants can't go either forrad or 
aft o' certain limits, all lights are out at eight in the evenin' , 
no smokin' after that hour, and in heavy weather none o' 
them are allowed on deck. In the Southern Ocean, run- 
nin' our eastin' down, the hatches were battened for two 
weeks, and all the air the people got was thro' the ventila- 
tors. When such emigrants get to Melbourne they have 
to report at Government House, and things are fixed so 
they Can pay their passage-money in instalments. The 
men are generally a pretty decent, well-conducted lot ; but 
the women, — oh. Lord ! the women ! Some o' them's ama- 
zons, and that's a fact. I remember one that we had on 
board had the whole ship in a hurrah till one day Cap'n 
Skene ordered her aft to talk to her. I mind the time 
well : the cap'n, a fat, short, little man in blue and brass 
buttons wi' podges on his shoulders, as vain as a turkey, 
but a good seaman, was talkin' to a couple o' first-class 
passengers when this lassie was led aft, and he turned with 
a frown to size her up like. 'Well, mutton-face, who' re 
ye lookin' at ?' says she ; and then, without givin' him 
time for a word, she bawled at him, ' D'ye know what I 
think o' you? You're no more good than a hoot down a 
dumb-waiter shaft.' She said she was no bloomin' sailor, 
and she'd have the run o' the ship if she liked ; and, will 
you believe it, they had to put the irons on her, she got 
that bad. We used to have great singin' in the dog- 
watches. Man, 'twould ha' done yer heart good to see 
us sailors a-sittin' on the forecastle-head, thirty of us, and 
pretty soon we'd start a chanty and keep it up for ten 
minutes ; and no sooner would we stop than a score of 
emigrants amidships would take it up, the women's and 
men's voices soundin' fine together, till it was most as 

386 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

good as a concert. You'd better believe it, though, that 
it takes strict discipline to keep a hundred and fifty people 
in order for three months. ' ' 

"See here, MacFoy," said I, when he had finished. 
' ' I want you to answer me a straight question ; is this a 
hard ship on the men ?' ' 

" Why, no, of course it's not," he answered. 

"Well, Mr. Rarx told me that once, but I didn't know 
whether to believe him or not," said I. 

"I can just tell you, she's the quietest Yankee ship / 
ever sailed in," observed David ; "why, there's been no 
blood flyin' at all to amount to much. The men can't 
make it out ; there hasn't one o' them been clouted now 
goin' on three weeks. But I can tell you why it is ; it's 
all on account o' you and your wife. The old man won't 
let out before ye, but I've often seen him hold on tight to 
himself and just swear instead o' knockin' the feller end- 
wise. Yes, Mr. Rarx was right when he told ye this was 
an easy ship." Latitude, 37° 18' north ; longitude, 139° 
50' west. 

September 12 

Hurrah for California ! Hurrah for the north wind ! 
Our bowsprit is at last pointing towards the brown crags of 
the Golden Gate. At the change of the watch at mid- 
night we heard the captain sing out, ' ' All hands on deck ; 
tack ship. ' ' A few moments later came ' ' Put your helium 
down" ; and a moment afterward he called out " Helium's 
a-lee' ' ; yet another minute or two and ' ' Maintop-sail 
haul" split the air. A dead silence followed as the men 
cast of? the braces, and then the heavy yards clattered 
noisily around, followed by the agreeable sound of ropes 
running over patent sheaves (always pronounced shivs) ; 
and finally, ' ' Let go and haul' ' went ringing forward, the 

3S7 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

■head-yards swung round, and in ten minutes more the ship 
was braced up on the port tack, heading somewhat to the 
northward of east. All continued to go well, and we are 
now doing seven knots. 

At 10.30 this A.M., as we were watching the mate reeve 
a new log- line on the "cherub," I heard Kelly at the 
wheel say " Sst, sst,"' and looking where he pointed, lo ! 
a sail appeared well above the horizon on the lee bow. 
The glasses resolved her into a three-masted fore-and-aft 
schooner on the starboard tack ; and we presently per- 
ceived that she was rigged with pole-masts and a spike 
bowsprit, being the first vessel of the sort I ever saw. It 
makes a very serviceable rig, not so picturesque as fidded 
topmasts and slender jib-boom, but powerful and able look- 
ing, which count for more in a seaman's eye than aesthetic 
beauty. 

Before long it became apparent that if neither of us 
shifted the helm there would be a collision ; and as we 
were on the port tack, we should be the one to alter our 
course ; but then the other vessel was only a schooner, so 
this would never enter the mind of a square-rigger skipper. 
Sure enough, although the other had the right of way, she 
shifted her wheel and we passed across her bows, not more 
than a cable' s length away. She was the ' ' Sequoia, ' ' of 
San Francisco, three hundred and twenty-five tons, and 
was probably bound up to Puget Sound from a southern 
Californian port. Observe how hard it is to make north- 
ing as well as easting here at this season, when vessels are 
obliged to stand off shore twenty degrees in order to reach 
up, and the " Sequoia" hadn't tacked ship yet to fetch in. 
I never before saw a fore-and-aft schooner a thousand miles 
off shore, though there are small two-masters that trade 
between Newfoundland and Spain, and between Boston 
and the Bight of Benin. 

388 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

As we passed the "Sequoia," all hands aboard of her 
crowded to the side to see us ; and we probably made a 
splendid picture as we swept by, only two or three hundred 
yards away, under all possible canvas. The captain and 
mate declared that her name was pronounced ' ' Sequina' ' ; 
ship-masters often have the most remarkable pronunciations 
even for well-known ports and landmarks, and they cling 
to them with dogged tenacity. 

Last night we had another new dish for supper, — cream 
toast. This sounds odd, I expect, but it was simply deli- 
cious ; it is true that, as in the case of the rarebits the other 
evening, the bread was not all that could be desired ; but 
by using unsweetened condensed Swiss cream, thinned a 
little with water, it proved to be a most savory dish, though 
an expensive one for the ship, as an entire can has to be 
used each time. In truth, if made thus, it tastes far better 
than if fresh milk is used, as the great fault with ordinary 
milk toast lies in its flatness and insipidity ; but the Swiss 
cream, being very rich and perfectly pure, is eminently 
adapted to this purpose. It sticks in my mind that this 
ought to be a hint for housewives. 

Already we have begun to estimate precisely when we 
will reach port ; if we do it in six days, or by next Satur- 
day, it will mean only a hundred and fifty miles a day, or 
six and a half per hour, which we should do without trouble 
if we do not fall to leeward of the Farallones. 

Mr. Rarx is still very feeble, and will evidently have to 
be carried ashore. Latitude, 38° 10' north ; longitude, 
139° 10' west. 

September 13 

A magnificent day, though not quite so much wind as 
we would like to have. Up to ten this morning we did 
passably well, but since then it has been pretty light, though 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

there is a bank of wool-packs rising in the west, foretelHng 
more wind from that desirable quarter. We made three 
degrees of departure, and to our chagrin, not to say con- 
sternation, fifty-eight miles of southing ; this latter must be 
due, we think, to an error in our previous dead reckoning, 
as we hadn't had the sun for two days, and the currents 
here are often strong. A line drawn from yesterday's al- 
leged noon position to that of to-day passes directly over 
the reputed Reed Rocks ; but as we are by no means sure 
of yesterday' s work, we cannot on that account positively 
deny their existence. They were first reported about fifty 
years ago by one Reed, an American mariner ; but as the 
British admiralty charts do not acknowledge the presence 
of the rocks, and as our own charts have D marked beneath 
them, meaning doubtful, it is probable that, if they ever did 
exist, they have now disappeared. 

It is worthy of mention that the total cost of running and 
maintaining a ship like the ' ' Hosea Higgins' ' for one year 
amounts to an average of twenty-five thousand dollars. In 
New York alone the bills that Captain Scruggs had to pay 
before we went to sea amounted to almost fifteen thousand 
dollars, though this was a somewhat excessive amount, 
owing to the putting in of a new bowsprit and fore lower 
mast, which, with the rigger's bill, footed up a total of two 
thousand dollars. Here is a list of the accounts rendered : 
Riggers, stores, stevedore, foremast, blacksmith, wharfage, 
advance to men, ship-chandler, sail-maker, tow-boat, pilot, 
shipwright, tonnage dues, butcher (fresh meat). 

In San Francisco there will be an equally heavy account, 
as a new mizzen lower mast will be shipped there ; and 
when the "Higgins" arrives back at New York she will 
have to be thoroughly overhauled and repaired, being of 
the age of fifteen years. Wooden vessels are classed A i 
for that period and no longer without a complete renova- 

390 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

tion, and she is then reclassed ; iron vessels are rated A i 
for a much longer period. The list of firms above enumer- 
ated would not be complete, however, without mentioning 
the cooper's bill. This is sometimes quite large for repairs 
made to cases, barrels, etc., on account of damage sustained 
while loading, at sea, or discharging. Goods must always 
be delivered in first-rate condition. Yet, in spite of the 
heavy running expenses, this ship averages fifteen and 
sixteen per cent, profit ; and there is one very large iron 
four-masted ship, belonging to the keenest ship-owner in 
New York, which regularly pays a twenty per cent, annual 
dividend. Nearly all American sailing ships pay well ; but 
the greatest profits that I know of in late years have been 
made by a British eleven-knot tramp steamer, whose name 
I cannot remember. This vessel for the last four years has 
paid the owners an average annual profit of thirty-four per 
cent. Much of this is, of course, due to the vessel's hap- 
pening to strike the various markets at exactly the right 
time, though there must be a good, sharp business head to 
the concern to achieve such an astonishing result. It is 
said, however, that the majority of British sailing ships are 
not good money-makers. Latitude, 37° 12' north ; longi- 
tude, 136° 15' west. 

September 14 

A magnificent breeze that has driven us along at nearly 
nine knots has blown steadily from the north-northeast 
for twenty-four hours, giving us an easterly course by 
compass. But, alas ! the point and a half of variation 
and another half-point of leeway force us to steer about 
east- southeast true. We made a whole degree of south- 
ing in consequence, and are now ninety miles south of 
'Frisco Heads. If we have to tack ship it will be a 
piece of outrageous luck ; and if the ship doesn't come up 

39 » 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

three points by noon to-morrow, that's just what we will 
have to do. 

Last Sunday, as I was talking to some of the men for- 
ward, Broadhead spoke of the Yellowstone Park, and he 
chanced to mention that a friend of his had spent his honey- 
moon in that delectable locality, adding that, of course, 
everything looked particularly rosy even for the Yellowstone. 
Conversation then changed, when all at once I found the 
eyes of Jimmie Rumps fixed upon me, and a moment later 
he said, wistfully and earnestly, ' ' I should think it must be 
just grand to go on a honeymoon." Rumps, it might be 
added, would make an excellent cabin-boy on a yacht ; but 
as bosun of a large ship, it would be difficult to find one 
more thoroughly incompetent than he is. There are at 
least a dozen of the men before the mast who are far better 
sailors than he, and seamanship is a sine qua non in a bosun 
as well as in a second mate. 

Another speech of one of the men afiorded us a little 
amusement this forenoon. As my wife stepped to the 
binnacle to learn the course, the old man having just gone 
below with his sextant, Paddy, the merry, humorous young 
Irishman, was steering ; but instead of his usual jolly smile, 
his face indicated the most extreme dejection. So, to cheer 
him up, my wife nodded to him and remarked, "We'll 
soon be in, Paddy." "Yes, mum, I know," he replied, 
' ' but I got gum-boils now' ' ; to show that variety had been 
vouchsafed him in his afflictions, as he has only just recov- 
ered from the worst sea-boils in the ship. 

It may not be very widely known that in the United 
States there are several competent women ship-mistresses, 
as I suppose they ought to be called. I don' t mean women 
who understand more or less about the handling of vessels, 
but those who are entirely capable and have received their 
certificates for steamers from the government. The first 

392 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

woman to pass the examination in this country was a Mrs. 
George Miller, of New Orleans, and it was the late Justice 
Folger, at the time Secretary of the Treasury, who, after 
mature deliberation, decided that a woman could legally, if 
she passed the severe examination necessary to command 
a steam-vessel, assume the responsible position of captain. 
Since then several women in the United States have ob- 
tained master's licenses and have demonstrated their ability 
to handle steamers ; but the woman-captain of a square- 
rigger has not yet appeared on the horizon, though many 
long-voyage captains' wives are almost, if not quite, as 
capable navigators and seamen as their husbands. 

The British Board of Trade, however, has positively re- 
fused to allow a member of the gentler sex to appear before 
it for examination. A test case recently came up when the 
daughter of an English marquess applied to that institution 
for master's papers. This lady pointed out that she simply 
desired to command her own yacht, which she was quite 
capable of doing, and did not wish to have anything to do 
with any other vessel ; but the Board of Trade's answer to 
her application was that it would not permit a woman to be 
examined for a master's certificate, as the word master im- 
plicitly specified that men alone were eligible. Shortly 
afterward the marquess's daughter married an Irish mer- 
chant captain, and at the present time is no doubt ably as- 
sisting her husband in the navigation of the splendid ship 
which he has the good fortune to command. Latitude, 
36° 21' north ; longitude, 132° 30' west. 

September 15 

This is the second of my wife's birthdays that we have 
passed at sea, as three years ago we celebrated one in the 
" Mandalore" in 37° south, 16° east ; and to commemorate 
this occasion we have had very strong northerly winds, with 

393 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

heavy puffs, a clear sky, and a rough but magnificent sea, 
with the ship bounding through it under the maintop-gal- 
lant-sail, bursting the spray high up to windward in drench- 
ing showers as she shoulders her way through the great 
creaming billows. How superb and proud they look, their 
snow-white, downy crests standing pompously forth against 
the azure sky, with intervening valleys of that wonderful 
blue which imparts such a fascination to the scene ! We 
love nothing better than to pick out a particularly tall sea 
when it is still a quarter of a mile away on the bow. On 
it comes, as resistless as time ; now hidden as the ship 
drops into a hollow, now soaring above its fellows as some 
grand, snowy peak towers over its pine-clad neighbors. 
Nearer and yet nearer it approaches, challenging combat as 
it comes, the vessel half advancing to meet it. And now it 
is right alongside, and hangs menacingly thirty feet above 
the ship, and the spray scattered from its glistening sum- 
mit flies overhead in a swirling cloud, and a rainbow spans 
for an instant the streaming decks. It seems impossible 
that the vessel can clear the swift rush of the great billow ; 
but just as it gathers itself for the assault the ship, with a 
heavy lurch to leeward, presents a high, copper-sheathed 
wall to the seething flood, and before you know it you 
have passed the crest of the huge wave and are sliding 
smoothly and noiselessly into the quiet valley beyond. 

We have just cause for rejoicing, too, for the ship has 
come up two whole points since midnight, and we are now 
steering east-northeast by compass ; two more points to 
the northward and we can fetch to windward of the Faral- 
lones. The captain seems wonderfully positive that we 
will fetch in all right, and when he expresses himself so 
surely, which he seldom does, we always feel pretty certain 
of the chances being in our favor, 

I haven't mentioned Mr. Rarx for some time. He has 

394 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

not been doing at all well, eats hardly six ounces of food a 
day, and he has withered away to a wraith of his former 
self ; an idea of this may be gained from the captain's es- 
timate that he has lost at least forty pounds. The im- 
pression grows that Louis will be cleared in court, this 
opinion being held even by the skipper, for the men say 
that the second mate knocked Karl down with a maul 
besides the block, and there are three others who can bring 
damaging evidence against Mr. Rarx. But I am very 
much afraid that the mellifluous voices of the crimps when 
they swarm aboard in San Francisco harbor will exercise a 
somewhat different influence upon their opinions. I should 
like to see a ship-master with the courage to prevent the 
entrance of these crimps into his vessel ; but if he did so 
and had them all kicked over the side into the harbor, as 
they ought to be, what a time this ship-master would have 
getting a crew together when he was next ready for sea ! 
For not a boarding-master in the city would let him have 
a man. 

If sailors would only hold together when they get ashore 
and testify against the bad treatment that they get at sea, 
nine-tenths of the villains who ofUcer our deep-water-men 
would now be contemplating existence behind grated win- 
dows. If we had any doubts as to this particular ship' s being 
worse in its treatment of the men than the average Yankee, 
they were further dispelled by a remark of Jack Nickalls, an 
unobtrusive little sailor, and a good one : " This ship's a 
peach compared to them wot I've been in." Louis is 
fairly cheerful and conducts himself remarkably well. Lati- 
tude 36° i' north ; longitude, 128° 20' west, 

September 16 

To our very great astonishment, the wind increased very 
rapidly yesterday afternoon, and by three o'clock it was 

395 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

blowing a strong gale from the northward, with a cloudless 
sky. Several exciting incidents marked the day, the first of 
which occurred at the above hour. I had just gone on deck 
when suddenly there was a most tremendous clatter for- 
ward, and in another second down fell the big maintop-mast 
stay-sail, hanging outboard so as to just touch the water, as, 
of course, it was blown to leeward by the gale. From be- 
yond the head, which was that part that hung down, ex- 
tended about six feet of the heavy iron wire stay which had 
parted, and there instantly began the most terrible slatting 
that I have ever heard or seen. It was nothing short of 
fearful. There was a heavy sea running, and as the ship 
would lay far over every few moments the wind would gather 
up the sail, blow it out horizontally to leeward, and then 
jerk it back and forth, up and down, seemingly in every 
direction at the same instant, with appalling fury, the iron 
wire dashing now against the main -backstays, now against 
the bulwarks, now full into the bunt of the main-sail, with a 
force that was awful and made you hold your breath as the 
weapon was flung against the backstays with the crack of 
a pistol. I have seen slatting before when the gear of large 
racing yachts carried away ; but it was not to be spoken 
of in the same breath with that of to-day. It was as if the 
power of the universe was concentrated in the twisting, 
bounding, whirling stay-sail ; and the sailors stood aghast, 
for it was certain death to approach. 

The captain was asleep when the stay parted, but he was 
on deck in a few seconds, and instantly ordered the helm 
hard up, so as to get the ship before the wind and prevent 
further destruction, for the main-rigging couldn't have 
stood the thrashing much longer. Slowly the ship paid 
off, but five minutes passed until she was running free 
before the big, smoking seas, for we had started nothing, 
but had simply put the helm up. Meanwhile the slashing 

396 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

continued, and at last the wire burst through the main-sail 
and made a gaping rent in the after-leech. How the whole 
lee side of the sail escaped is marvellous ; but when we 
were dead before the wind four hands simultaneously seized 
the heaving sail, and by heroic work finally got it muzzled 
after fifteen minutes of most courageous efforts. 

No sooner was it secured and the ship on her course 
again than the old man sung, out, ' ' Clew up the main- 
t'-ga'nt-s'l. " There was a rush to the clew-lines and hal- 
liards ; but somebody slacked away something too quickly 
for the zephyr that was whispering aloft, for there came a 
crackling report, and the top-gallant-sail at once was trans- 
formed into canvas pennants. A varied assortment of 
profanity tinged the atmosphere for quite half an hour, as a 
new sail had to be bent, and no one who has not seen a 
sail shifted in a gale of wind can form any true idea of the 
hard labor entailed in the process. So, leaving the un- 
initiated to picture it as well as he can, I must go on to de- 
scribe something that occurred which more nearly con- 
cerned ourselves. 

My wife and I were in our room a few minutes later dis- 
cussing the stay-sail business, when, without warning, there 
came a very great lurch, and then the booming of mighty 
waters smote our ears as a whooping sea fell thundering 
directly on the poop. For a moment we were speechless 
as the water rushed in our windows, in spite of this being 
the lee side, drenching every object in the room ; but we 
were called to our senses mighty suddenly by the volume 
of water that came cascading down the companion-way 
and gushing inches deep into our room. But, alas ! what 
could we do ? Such a thing happens in a second, and by 
the time that we had slammed the door and shutters there 
was no more water to come in and the damage was 
wrought. Personally we did not suffer extensively, but 

397 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

the after-cabin was a rare sight. The skipper's room was 
on the weather-side, and as the ship heeled far over to the 
sea, everything movable shot out into the cabin, and when 
we first saw it books, magazines, balls of twine, slippers, 
shoes, ocean directories, charts, dividers, rulers, cigars, 
and an incredible number of old San Franciscan news- 
papers, every letter of which we have read, including the 
advertisements, were washing about in half a foot of brine. 
An idea of the volume of water may be gained when it is 
said that the steward and Sammie were an hour and a half 
in baling it out with buckets. Fortunately, the weather 
windows were protected by the solid wooden shutters which 
had just been closed ; but the companion door had been 
left open, and this did nearly all the damage. Not even 
when the forward skylight was stove off the river Plate 
was there so much water below, and it was really an alarm- 
ing thing to see so much ocean flowing down the com- 
panion-stairs. 

But all these little inconveniences were as nothing when 
compared with the fact that the gale delayed us seriously 
and that the sea kept knocking us off, though the wind 
was steady at north-northwest ; so that, in spite of it, we 
did not make good a better course than east by north and 
went through the water very slowly, as we had to hold her 
well up to make even one point of northing. 

By ten this a. m. , however, the wind had so moderated 
that the top-gallant-sails were set, but we began then to 
break off to the southward of east, and at one o' clock we 
wore ship and are now on the starboard tack, heading up 
northwest by north. The point to be avoided at all hazards 
is not to fall off to the southward any more ; never mind 
going back into the Pacific a little if you can make some 
northing. Our destination is distant only a hundred and 
fifty miles, and the captain has until Saturday to save his 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

record of one hundred and thirty days. Latitude, 36° 28' 
north ; longitude, 125° 30' west. 

September 17 

Instead of being now within sight of the coast, lo ! we 
are becalmed within twenty miles of where we were at 
noon yesterday. It is difficult to imagine anything more 
exasperating than to lie idly upon the surface of a glassy 
ocean, only a little more than a hundred miles from the 
port for which you have been striving for four months. I 
wouldn't care if the voyage were to be several weeks 
longer, but it is trying for all hands to thus lie becalmed 
so near the haven. Off the Hooghly, we were similarly 
tortured with light winds for several days. 

When we went on deck this morning the weather was 
such that we might well have conceived ourselves down 
between the Trades, for we apparently floated in oil, and 
the big squares of canvas depended in writhing folds from 
the lofty yards. Not even the smallest clouds spattered 
the blue heavens, but a thin haze covered the sea and rose 
above the horizon some fifteen degrees or so, a semi-trans- 
parent curtain of a deep orange, beautiful to behold, but of 
ill omen, as it was highly improbable that anything worthy 
the name of breeze would come from anywhere with such 
conditions. 

Astern, among the dark, spiral water- funnels floated half 
a dozen gunies, and we thought that perhaps we could cap- 
ture one ; therefore the skipper rigged a small hook baited 
with bacon-rind to a thin line and dropped it overboard. 
In a few minutes one took the bait ; and, giving the line a 
jerk, he hooked the creature in the upper part of the bill 
and hauled him through the water and up over the stern. 
This bird made but little resistance, and formed a strong- 
contrast to the fierce struggles of an albatross under 

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BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

similar conditions. When finally deposited upon the deck, 
he seemed to be about the size of a swan as to body, but 
his wings were very long, the alar extent being eight feet, 
or only three or four feet less than an average albatross. 
Like the latter, a guny can inflict a very severe wound 
with his bill, and it is necessary to have a care for your 
calves as you pass by. We endeavored to take some pho- 
tographs of the big bird, but he would insist upon con- 
tinual motion, and finally the wretched beast cast up the 
contents of his stomach on the deck, after the manner of 
all sea-fowl. Then the captain brought up the Maltese 
cat, who entertains a very lofty opinion of itself and who 
is in the habit of valiantly putting the chickens to flight ; 
he was apparently stunned, though, when confronted with 
the great bird, and when the latter opened a beak in which 
the whole of Tommie's head might have rested, his tail 
thickened and he sped him away. As it was useless then 
to keep the guny any longer on board, the skipper grasped 
him dexterously by the tip of one wing and threw him 
over the side ; whereupon catching himself before he 
touched the water, he flew off with a joyous scream to re- 
join his comrades, and no doubt relate to them his wonder- 
ful adventures. Latitude, 36° 35' north ; longitude, 125° 
50' west. 

September 18 

Becalmed, sixty-five miles from the Farallones ! It is a 
dismal fact that although we had a light, fair wind all last 
night, it let go at nine this morning, and since then we have 
been weltering in a light swell from the northward, with the 
sea at times like blue ice. Such a dead calm was it that 
my wife and I played cards the greater part of the morning 
on deck. At 7 a.m. the haze that shrouded the sea com- 
menced to melt under the hot sun, and two ships were dis- 

400 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

closed to our vision, one to port, the other to starboard. 
The former was a three-master of about two thousand tons, 
while the other was a very large, full-rigged, four-masted 
ship — that is, square-rigged on all the masts — of fully 
twenty- eight hundred tons. Both were metal vessels, and 
made a fine picture as they gracefully topped the easy swell. 
They were bound to the southward, and therefore have all 
their troubles before them. 

The poor old man has broken his record, and we feel very 
sorry for him ; and, indeed, it is a very fine thing for a cap- 
tain to be able to say that never, upon any voyage, in any 
part of the world, has he been more than one hundred and 
thirty days at sea. He takes this voyage very philosophi- 
cally, which is a remarkable fact, and says that no matter 
how fine a man's record may be, it's only necessary to keep 
on and it will at last be broken. I divided up some articles 
of old clothes among the men this afternoon, and their 
pleasure as they drew lots for the various pieces, which they 
made no attempt to conceal, was delightful to see. We, 
ourselves, are all packed up ready to go ashore whenever 
the wind will allow us ; it is very satisfactory to get this 
done, for we always travel with an altogether unnecessary 
quantity of impedimenta, and it is a matter of consider- 
able skill to compress all the things into two or three 
trunks. 

While we were looking at the smaller of those two ships 
this morning the captain said that she looked like the 
British ship "Eurydice," the present holder of the record 
passage across the North Pacific, she having made the voy- 
age from Yokohama to Port Townsend in the wonderfully 
fast time of nineteen days. With this voyage compare 
those of two other British square-riggers, the ' ' Clan Mac- 
farlane" and the " Matterhorn" ; neither is a slow ship, 
yet the former was one hundred and one days sailing from 
26 401 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

Hong-Kong to San Francisco, and the latter one hundred 
and fourteen between the same ports. 

The captain is beginning to wonder how difficult it is 
going to be for him to get a crew in ' Frisco when he is 
ready for sea again ; he is worrying a good deal over it, for 
when we sailed from New York sailors were so scarce in 
San Francisco that the big ships ' ' Forfarshire' ' and ' ' Ken- 
sington" went to sea with crews half of which were ranch 
hands, who had been rounded up by the crimps. Lati- 
tude, 37° 1 1' north; longitude, 124° 12' west. 

September 19 

At half-past six this morning there was a great rapping 
and thumping on our door, and Captain Scruggs cried, ' ' If 
you want to see the Faralleeones you'd better come on 
deck." Ten minutes later we emerged from the compan- 
ion-way, but at first could see nothing at all for a chilly 
fog that lay upon the water, which had, during the night, 
changed to the muddy green of soundings. By dint of 
perseverance, though, we saw a large, dark mass loom 
gradually up until we could plainly discern the brown, 
sterile cones of the Farallones, which lie about twenty-five 
miles west of San Francisco Heads. Many persons have 
been puzzled to know why it is that the majority of the 
Pacific coast population pronounce the word as though it 
was spelled Fa-ra-lee-owns. The explanation of it seems to 
me to be a corruption of the Spanish pronunciation Fa-ral- 
yo-nes, as, of course, the double 1 in that language has the 
sound of y. The same can be said of Mollendo, an im- 
portant Peruvian port in 17° south ; for Calif ornians who 
are not especially erudite call the place Mol-ly-en-do, from 
the Spanish Mol-yen-do. It will be perceived how readily 
careless persons could fall into the way of putting an extra 

syllable in names which contain the double 1, from hear- 

402 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

ing Mexicans and South Americans pronounce the words, 
which, of course, they do correctly. 

As we had packed all of our valises, etc, , the night before, 
there was nothing for us to do but to anticipate with pleas- 
urable excitement the entrance into the Golden Gate, for 
the captain assured us that by eleven o' clock there wouldn' t 
be a vestige of fog left ; this being a peculiarity of the coast 
climate. Sure enough, at ten the mists began to disperse 
and a bright glare overhead indicated an impending flood 
of sunshine. 

At this moment we heard several sharp whistles ahead, 
and a tow-boat passed close to us in another minute, and 
then rounding to, ranged up alongside. How odd a sensa- 
tion it is to see a new face again after an absence of four 
months from the retreats of men ! Day after day, week 
after week, we have watched Mr. Goggins relieve Mr. 
Rarx, and Broadhead relieve Paddy, so steadily that we 
almost forgot that there was any one else in existence ; and 
when we perceived the captain of the tug-boat standing in 
the pilot-house in a glistening ' ' biled' ' shirt and store 
clothes and a polish on his brown shoes that quite dazzled 
us, we gazed upon him fascinated, for he was the biggest 
dude we had seen in nineteen weeks. And how uncouth 
the ship's company looked when contrasted with even the 
tow-boat's crew ! However, we were soon brought to from 
our reveries by a large bundle of newspapers that the tug's 
skipper hove on board ; and who can depict the joy of that 
hour, during which we pored over the journals, marvelling 
at the commonplace allusions to momentous events which 
had been almost forgotten by the daily reader ? 

Presently we passed two ships bound up to Puget Sound, 
— the "Dashing Wave" and the " Yosemite" (old Neil- 
sen, a Swede, said he used to sail in the " Jo-se-might"), — 
and then, the fog lifting suddenly and completely, we found 

403 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

ourselves only two miles from the Heads. ' ' Get out an 
old ensign, ' ' said the skipper to the mate, ' ' and put it in 
the riggin', union down." "Hall right, sir," answered 
that individual with much satisfaction, and in a few minutes 
an old torn flag, reversed, fluttered in the starboard miz- 
zen-shrouds. It was of ominous meaning, for to a sailor it 
signified ' ' police assistance wanted on board. ' ' And then 
we remembered the Frenchman below, and wondered what 
his thoughts and anticipations must be, for of course he 
knew that a tow-boat had our line. 

It was a quarter to noon when we entered the Golden 
Gate under a cloudless sky and caught our first glimpse of 
the world-famed harbor. A single word describes it, — mag- 
nificent. The entrance itself, where the ship moves on be- 
tween wild, rugged hills that tower sheer out of the sea, is 
marked with an individual grandeur, and serves to prepare 
one for the splendid haven within ; and when the ship 
finally glides beyond a certain headland and creeps slowly 
along in a perfect maze of great wooden and steel sailing 
ships, with the immense expanse of shining water ahead, the 
wonderful, perpendicular streets on the starboard hand, and 
the endless chain of lofty hills on the other, a sensation of 
pride tingles through you when you think that it is your 
"ain countrie" that boasts this great, matchless harbor. 

Long before the anchorage was reached a handsome 
white steamer was seen approaching us, with a vertically 
striped flag in the stern. It was the revenue cutter ; and, 
steaming alongside, four men at once stepped on board. 
The first was the customs inspector, and the others, a 
deputy United States marshal and tv/o policemen. It was 
a dramatic scene. All of our men were huddled around 
the galley, with anxious looks toward the ofificers of the 
law, who immediately went into the cabin and held a long 
conversation in low tones with the captain. Then the 

404 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

deputy marshal stepped into the second mate's room and 
talked with him five minutes in whispers, a blue-coat post- 
ing himself at each cabin door. A rattling of keys was 
heard in another moment, and then old Goggins, somewhat 
awed, but as pompous and ridiculous as a turkey, stumped 
down into the lazarette, and with much unnecessary clank- 
ing of chains Louis issued forth into daylight. He was as 
pale as ashes, for a sort of prison pallor was upon his 
usually dark cheeks, and he seemed on the point of break- 
ing down when he saw the police. Then he looked all 
around imploringly, first at his shipmates near the galley, 
then at Captain Scruggs, and finally he caught sight of us, 
when he cast upon us a look so sad and beseeching that 
I will remember forever the sorrowful look in his eyes. 
Only for an instant did he stop, though ; the ofificers 
stepped forward at a nod from the deputy, grasped the 
Frenchman, still manacled, by the collar, marched him 
quickly over to the port side, hustled him aboard the rev- 
enue boat, and in another instant Louis Jacquin, able sea- 
man, of Dunquerque, disappeared from view and was on his 
way to show cause for an assault on the high seas upon 
Thomas Rarx, second mate of the clipper ' ' Hosea 
Higgins." 

When the anchor had touched the bottom we stood by 
for the crimps. Even before we were aware of it the evil 
creatures began to swarm on board like a flock of sinister 
vultures, and without ceremony they fell upon their prey. 
They plied the men from bottles whose black nozzles pro- 
truded from their coat-pockets ; and in a few minutes each 
had pursuaded his man to go with him when they should 
get ashore. Poor fellows, once more in the clutches of the 
vampires, who, while not actually fostered by the govern- 
ment, yet are allowed to ply their abominable and iniqui- 
tous trade full in the face of the law. And I repeat, the 

405 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

allotment or advance system of wages that now prevails, and 
which is the basis upon which the whole scheme of crimping 
is founded, must be abolished. It is the duty of the Fed- 
eral government to see to it that this is done. 

At fifteen minutes past twelve there was a loud order 
from the captain, "Let go." Then came the heavy, 
crushing splash, the fierce rush of the cable, the big four- 
thousand-pound anchor gripped the mud of San Francisco 
Bay, and our long voyage was a thing of the past. How 
many exciting moments we had had in those one hundred 
and thirty-one days ! What varied phases of the ocean 
we had witnessed in the seventeen thousand four hundred 
miles we had sailed, from the snowy squalls and hissing 
seas of Cape Horn to the quiet breezes and calm surface of 
the equatorial seas ! 

Little time was given us for reflection, though, for the 
tug-boat skipper had agreed to put us ashore at the foot of 
Market Street, if we would ' ' look alive. " So we threw 
our valises and shawl-straps to a deck-hand on the tug, 
shook Captain Scruggs hardy fist, and then turned to do 
the same with Mr. Goggins ; but as this individual was 
invisible at the time, no doubt below in the fore-peak, we 
were obliged to forego that pleasure. And now there en- 
sued a remarkable scene : as we went over the side we 
noticed that all the sailors were on the mainyard, unbend- 
ing the sail, and as we stepped aboard the tow-boat I 
shouted, " Good-by, boys! Good luck to you all!" 
There was a moment's silence, and then Broadhead, who 
was at the starboard yard-arm just over our heads, sung 
out, ' ' Now, fellows, three times three for them' ' ; and 
at once there broke out the most vociferous and lusty 
cheering that ever came from eighteen throats. The men 
seemed to get worked up as they shouted, and at last 
MacFoy and a dozen others fairly yelled and threw their 

406 



BY WAY OF CAPE HORN 

caps on deck and waved their arms like madmen, so that 
their voices went ringing peal on peal over the broad 
harbor, bringing to the rail the officers and crews of the 
big Scotch ships "Aberfoyle," " County of Linlithgow" 
and "Blairgowrie," which lay hard by, to know what all 
this cheering meant on a Yankee just in from sea. It was 
a moment to bring a tear to your eye ; and neither my 
wife nor I can ever forget these honest, big-hearted sailors 
as they appeared on that yard, shouting themselves hoarse. 
Why ? Simply because we had bade them good-morning 
and good-night during the voyage and had shown that we 
understood and appreciated their hard and thankless labors. 
If ship-masters would realize that a single kind word or 
even look often exerts more influence over a crew than 
oaths and blows, what a difference there would be in the 
handling and navigating of our long-voyage sailing ships ! 



407 



APPENDIX 

A FEW days after our arrival at San Francisco, Louis 
Jacquin was brought for trial at that port before the United 
States Commissioner. He made an excellent defence ; so 
good, indeed, that after due consideration of both sides of 
the case, the commissioner was compelled to discharge 
him, and Louis walked forth a free man. This was a just 
and most satisfactory termination of the matter, though I 
would have liked to see Rarx properly punished for his 
treatment of Karl et al. In truth, Karl, Briin and Petter- 
sen did prefer charges against both mates, who were held 
for trial ; but when the case came up no witnesses appeared 
against them, for the very good reason that the three men 
were shanghaied aboard a New York bound ship by the 
boarding masters, thus pursuing the usual course in such 
matters. Rarx recovered in a short time, and no doubt is 
at this moment stamping on some poor fellow whom he has 
beaten down with the ever-present belaying-pin. 

While this book was in press, there arrived at San Fran- 
cisco one of our most widely known Cape-Horners. The 
men related stories of unusually shocking cruelties on the 
part of the captain as well as the ofificers, and the second 
mate was held in five hundred dollars bonds. Two of the 
sailors testified, on separate occasions, to this incident : 
While wearing ol5 the Horn one day, the second mate 
struck a sailor down with a capstan-bar and was kicking 
him heavily in the head, when the mate yelled from the 
poop, "That's right, kick the life out of him"; to which 
the second mate replied, ' ' I would kill him if we were only 
bound to Hong-Kong." 

409 



APPENDIX 

Is this the way our consuls protect the lives of men 
under the flag ? What is the matter with our Eastern con- 
sular service that men may be killed on our ships (as they 
have been), and the murderers go free upon landing at 
Chinese and Japanese ports? A delightful travesty, in- 
deed, upon our exalted civilization. 



THE END. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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